Vita
by AFN
Summary: The Doctor goes to a new world with Donna. As always, something is not right. Donna goes missing and the Doctor has to find out what happened, where she has been taken, why and by whom! Sorry but im not good at summaries! Enjoy! Please review!
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1: Vita

**Chapter 1: Vita**

The TARDIS landed with the usual bump sending sparks everywhere. The Doctor fell across the control panel and Donna landed on the floor with a heavy bump.

"You're a careful driver then!" said Donna, as gingerly regained her balance, "I take it you didn't pass your driving test, or if you did then you must have bribed the examiner!

"Always and no I didn't pass the test," replied the Doctor, then he turned to her with a large grin, "but who needs tests to tell you, you can do something anyway!"

"Hmmm" replied Donna, smiling back.

The Doctor was looking into the control screen trying to figure out where they had landed, while Donna walked back to the captain's chair and sat down with a small "oww". The Doctor noticed.

"Are you ok? Sorry about that but that's a hazard of time travel, you see. You only get a few nano seconds to actually see where you're landing!"

"I'll be ok" replied Donna. She looked at the Doctor as he raced around the control panel and pressed a few more buttons. He suddenly gave a look of astonishment.

"Where are we?" asked Donna.

The Doctor ran his hand through his hair and scratched the back of his head in thought, while still looking at the screen,

"I don't know" he said, seriously.

"You don't know? Wonderful!"

He suddenly smiled, ran towards the door grabbing his brown coat and turned to Donna,

"Let's have a look!" he said seriously, "but there are some rules that I have to make you aware of…1," he raised his hand, with one finger raised, "don't touch anything at all…nothing, nada, zilch, zip" he said emphasising the "P"

"2," he raised another finger, "Keep close to me and if you see anything odd then keep away from it, 4… no…3… umm, just be cautious and keep your wits about you. And I'll get to 4 when it comes to me! Ok?"

"Ok, that seems like sound advice, but you don't trust me do you?" replied Donna

The Doctor didn't reply but turned towards the door of the TARDIS. Donna just kept standing where she was until the Doctor turned around again, wondering why she wasn't coming.

"You're not coming then? New alien world out there, don't you want to see it?" asked the Doctor, indicating towards the doors.

"Yeah, but you told me to keep away from anything odd so I am," she said jokingly, half- smiling.

"What do you--… oh," started the Doctor, as he got what her meaning, "charming…that's all I can say! I can't believe I am being insulted already and I haven't done anything yet! ", "TYPICAL!" he said, with a mock hurt expression on his face

"But," he began after a moments thought, "if I wasn't 'odd' then I wouldn't be that interesting would I?" he said with a smile.

"Come on; let's have a look around before I go past being _odd._"

Donna smiled and walked towards the door. They both went through the door, the Doctor going first. Donna walked through, expecting to see a strange world with something like a purple sky and red sand (she didn't know why she was expecting that but never mind). What she saw disappointed her. All she saw was a normal looking alleyway, empty and silent. It reminded her of Earth.

"Is this Earth?" she asked the Doctor.

"Oh, no but a good imitation though. Very clever," replied the Doctor, looking around the alleyway.

"Then where are we?"

"We are on a planet called Vita. They use, I believe, holograms or computer projection thingies to make the traveller believe they are on earth," replied the Doctor.

"I thought you didn't know where we were?" said Donna

"I know everything!" he grinned

"Ok, so if you know _everything_ then why would they do that?" asked Donna

"No idea, what do you think?" asked the Doctor

Donna thought about it for a minute.

"Err…maybe its like making a TV set, an image to cover something up?" she replied

"Good answer, but why, is the question that needs answering and by whom." replied the Doctor, "We need to have a look around a bit more,"

He turned to Donna, "Come on!"

After locking the door of the TARDIS, they began walking up the alleyway. They followed it as it turned left, right, this way and that.

"Doctor, have you ever been here before?" asked Donna, as they continued walking up the alley, which seemed to her to never end.

"No, I haven't although, I have heard several stories."

"Like what?" asked Donna

The Doctor started telling Donna the various stories he had been told as a child, about how the Vitans, whom he was told, were a peaceful and docile race with a beautiful planet. Then he thought to himself, in his mind, why on earth would they want to cover it up?

Meanwhile, Donna looked around trying to take everything in, while acting like she was listening to the Doctor. She had never been one to pay attention when someone was talking about something that seemed boring or uninteresting. Although, she thought she would be interested because she wanted to see new worlds. Then she remembered how she had always been told that she had the attention span of a gnat or that she was stupid, just because she didn't find something interesting. Thank you mother, she thought.

Suddenly, she saw something glint in the corner of her eye. She looked to see what it was, while the Doctor kept walking, talking to himself. As she drew closer, the object slowly revealed itself to be something resembling a mobile phone. She picked it up and took a closer look.

It looked like one of those sliding ones, but she wondered why something like that would be on an alien planet, maybe it was part of the fake alleyway. She tried calling the Doctor but he seemed engrossed in what he was saying.

The Doctor kept walking up the alleyway still talking to him-self then he suddenly noticed that Donna was not beside him. He stopped and looked back to see Donna holding some kind of object in her hand.

"Donna, what have you found?" he shouted.

It appeared that she wasn't listening. He started to move towards Donna.

"Donna?" he shouted again, but still there was no response.

"Donna, put it down and back aw…" he begun.

He was interrupted by a sound of something sliding out and opening up. This made him start to race back to Donna. He knew this was something bad but before he reached her, he heard a voice saying, "Come to me". Suddenly, a bright light lit up the whole alleyway, so brightly that it blinded him for a few seconds. There were screams and a sudden sound of a hurricane breezing through. The Doctor was knocked off his feet and landed heavily on the floor. It was over as fast as it had begun. Everything was dark again and there was only a noise of the object hitting the stone floor.

The Doctor felt himself on the floor, after being knocked back by the energy, or whatever it was. He took a minute to get his breath back as it had been knocked out of him by his fall. He shouted for Donna again but there was no reply. He quickly looked around a bit more but Donna was no where to be seen. All he could see was a small black object on the floor where it had fallen.

He got himself up and began towards it. He picked it up and started turning it in his hands. He couldn't figure out what it was. It didn't even look familiar to him. He had never seen anything like it in his life. He then realised that the device had actually taken her itself. Where to and how? he thought. He found no way to know the answers exactly for sure.

He headed back towards the TARDIS and began to perform tests on it. He tried to activate the device with his sonic screwdriver but nothing seemed to happen. It was puzzling but he knew that all puzzles had an answer and he already knew that he would reach one. The question was when.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

A flash of bright light lit up a dark corridor. Donna fell to the floor, still screaming. Her hand was still up turned as if she was still holding the object that brought her to wherever she was.

Where am I? She thought as she looked around the now gloomy corridor. It wasn't warm, wherever it was and somehow it had a kind of office feel to it. This reminded her of the office where she'd met Lance who, she found out with the Doctors help, was deliberately poisoning her for the evil spider lady whom the Doctor called a Racnoss; while making out he liked and loved her. That experience still made her tremble every time she thought about it, even now. This was also the first time she had met the Doctor. She was transported onto his ship the TARDIS, as he'd called it. She remembered that she had accused him of kidnapping her but at the time, how was she supposed to know that evil work was at play. The memory made her smile. It also made her wonder if the Doctor was here with her. Had he been taken as well and was just unconscious next to her?

"Doctor!" she whispered, trying to see where the Doctor could be but all she heard in reply was silence. Was he in the same building?

"DOCTOR, WHERE ARE YOU?" she hissed loudly, but still got no reply. Obviously not, she thought. Panic started to rise inside her chest, and the longer she stayed here the stronger it was becoming.

I have to get out of here, she thought, and made to get up onto her feet. As she did, a sudden rush of dizziness flooded her head. She felt herself begin to sway so she leant on the wall to steady herself. She closed her eyes against the ever-intensifying wave that was invading her head. The growing feeling of nausea didn't help either.

Doctor, she thought, where are you when I need you? Suddenly, she remembered the Doctor or someone anyway shouting at her but had seemed to have been pushed back by the energy the black device generated.

The phone-like thing; she remembered, it had taken her here. But, where was it now? She looked around her but there was nothing there. It must have dropped out of her hand when she got transported here.

She hoped that the Doctor had found it and could somehow use it to rescue her. That is if she could be rescued from this place. Was it still on the planet that they had just landed on? Deep inside, she hoped that whoever had control of this place was harmless, but she knew that probably wasn't the case. Hopefully, she wouldn't need to find out.

Suddenly, the sound of footsteps brought her out of her thoughts. She looked around to see where the noise was coming from but saw no one. The sounds were getting louder and closer.

Panic rose again in her chest and felt it begin to filter throughout her body. She quickly looked around looking for a way to escape. She saw an open door to what looked like an office. It was dark. As the steps drew closer she had no choice but to run so she ran towards it and rushed behind the nearest available table.

The footsteps grew louder and heavier. A strange language or noise was reverberating around the corridor. As the footsteps reached the door, Donna slowly rose to look at whatever they were.

What she saw horrified her but also amused her. What belonged to those stomps were little men that looked like trolls with coloured hair of every colour in the rainbow. She couldn't see their faces in detail but what she saw didn't make her think of happy thoughts. But they weren't alone. Donna could also hear noises of pigs but as she found out, these were not real pigs but pig-men.

The group slowly moved away from the door, and Donna began to slowly move towards the door. She caught a glimpse of the men, rounding a corner at the right end of the corridor.

Slowly, she made her way down the corridor, making sure she made no noise to alert the group. Keeping close to the wall, she reached the corner and peered around. She could still see the group moving down the corridor, and go through a large pair of double doors into what looked like a lab. That was strange, she thought to herself, she never knew any office she had been in having a lab. But what did she know.

A voice of some kind of machine suddenly cut through the silence of the corridor. It appeared to be coming from behind those doors.

"_FIN-AL-LEE" _it said, "_BRING THEM TO ME._"

She had never heard anything like it before in her life. It scared…no frightened her but she was curious as to what was producing it. She blamed the Doctor for this because before she met him, she was never the person to purposely go into danger.

She edged around the corner and slowly made her way towards the door. She quickly looked up and down the corridor to check if she wasn't being followed. Happy that she wasn't, she turned her attention once more to the door. As she reached it, she heard a snorting noise from behind her. She quickly looked around and saw one of the pig-men standing behind her. All she could do was gasp in horror before he hit her and she fell unconscious to the floor.

When she woke up again, her vision was blurry and unfocused. An even bigger tide of dizziness, which now included pain, flooded her head. She tried to move her hands and legs but she found that they were tied. She tried to scream but no sound came out due to a gag filling her mouth. She slumped and moved her head, which came into contacted with a wall. The coolness of it seemed to calm the ache in her head and a few minutes later her vision started to clear. She looked around again and saw row upon row of beds and hospital machines with pipes going here, there and everywhere.

She saw no sign of anything, no pig-men, no troll- like people but only heard the hum of working machines. Suddenly, something started to move towards her, big and large. She tried to move away from it but found she couldn't as it moved closer towards her.

Another humanoid being moved towards her, dressed in a white coat. Why was it that wherever she went, doctors always wore white coats? Well, the Doctor was the exception. He never wore a white coat. She remembered the Doctor had said that white coats didn't suit him. This woman or what looked like a woman bent closer towards Donna and brandished an instrument at her. It moved up and down as well as shining it into Donna's eyes, almost blinding her. The woman finally stopped and then seemed to check it.

"_WHAT IS THE DIAGNOSIS?"_ said the metallic voice.

"She's not badly harmed,' replied the woman, who got up and turned towards the machine.

"_GET HER READY FOR Q__uestioning__"_ replied the metal voice.

"She needs rest before she is questioned, she has concussion" replied the woman.

"_GET HER READY_" insisted the being.

"I insist she needs rest!" exclaimed the woman.

Donna admired this woman's determination, although she was part of whatever had captured her. She heard some sort of mechanical movement. She still couldn't see what was generating it but by the look on the woman's face, it was scary.

A few moments the silence between the two was broken by the same metallic voice,

"_VERY WELL, TAKE HER BUT MAKE SURE SHE IS READY FOR QUESTIONING"_

"Yes, my lord, thank you," replied the woman, the relief was evident.

The entity that made the voice seemed to be moving away and for a split second Donna saw what it looked like.

It was black, with an angled lower body with humped panels. In the middle, there seemed to be two metal arms (one looking like a long plunger) and a head with a long metal pipe with a black kitchen knob looking thing at the end, which she supposed acted as some kind of eye stalk allowing the creature to see. It was crowned with two objects that looked like lights and when moving it didn't seem to role but glide. That was the freakiest bit of it. It stopped suddenly and turned its head to look at her. Its eyestalk moved up and down, like it was seizing her up. It seemed to be trying to figure out who she really was or how and with whom she came with. She knew it wasn't good and she hoped that the Doctor would come soon.

Instantly, she was grabbed by the pig-men and bundled out of the room. The strange machine watched her go and then moved away but Donna couldn't see as the door obscured her view. They forced her down the same corridor she had arrived in sometime earlier. She didn't know where they were taking her. She just hoped it was somewhere decent.

Half an hour later, Donna was taken through another set of double doors. The room beyond was white and shiny, like the lab she was just in. Although, this looked a lot shabbier, which was a surprise.

"Take her to bed eight" commanded the white-coated woman.

"Get off me!" shouted Donna, trying to struggle but found it was no use.

"You need to rest," said the woman, "you will be alright."

"Thanks for your concern! But, you should have thought of that before one of those pig-men hit me!" exclaimed Donna.

"I'm sorry about that but you are an intruder and so you needed to be stopped!" replied the woman.

"Then if I am _such_ a dangerous intruder, why are you looking after me?" asked Donna.

The woman ignored her and was busy with a machine nearby.

"What is this place? A hospital?" asked Donna, as she was placed in a chair next to some sort of bed.

"No… well I suppose it sort of is… its some kind of lab but with wards" replied the woman.

"What's going on here?" asked Donna.

"I can't really say" replied the woman, who gave Donna a reassuring smile.

Surprise, surprise, thought Donna. Something going on and it's a secret. Definitely not a good thing, whatever it was.

"This is your bed. You need to rest," said the woman, indicating to the bed beside Donna.

"Do you have anyone that knows you're here?"

"No, no one" replied Donna, who secretly hoped the Doctor would find her.

"Oh, ok, well rest up and I'll see you in a while," replied the woman and she left, leaving Donna alone.

"What's going to happen to me?" shouted Donna, but the lady didn't reply.

"Hey!" exclaimed Donna, but the woman had left the ward.

Panic started to escalate within Donna. She remembered the Doctor words, he spoke before "_They want you for something and what ever they want you for its not good!" _He had spoken them while trying to rescue her from a runaway taxi and still now, he had a point but where could she go? He had also told her before they left the TARDIS to touch nothing, go near nothing and keep to him but what had she done? She had touched that transporter-phone thing, gone near it and left the Doctor. She didn't think and now she had paid the price and been taken by that thing with no way of escaping. She knew that the Doctor would kill her and be angry but a little part of her knew that he would try and get to her. Or she hoped anyway.

But, she felt that she needed to get herself out and find the TARDIS and warn the Doctor, but how was she going to do that? She had to think and she knew that at this moment she was too dizzy to go anywhere. Hopefully she would be ok soon then at some point she would make her escape. She had brought herself into this mess; she had to somehow get herself out of it!


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

The Doctor had been sitting in the captain's chair, staring at the small black object that had taken Donna, still in his hand. It had been only a few hours since she was taken but still he couldn't fathom where she had been taken and how he was going to get her back. He had tried various things on it including scanning it via the medical bay but he had found nothing. Well, he had found it wasn't organic. He had even tried to trace any signal of the transport beam in order to trace where it was linked to but even that didn't work. Nothing seemed to radiate or penetrate the device, which had left him feeling, frustrated.

"Think! Think! Think!" he exclaimed to himself. This really shouldn't be that difficult, even for him. He wondered if he was losing his touch, that his age was finally catching up with him. Nah, he thought, he would think of something. All he needed was to let his mind work. He just wished it would hurry up.

"AH!" he thought, "What about other missing people? There has to be other missing people!"

He scrambled to the control panel, flicking and twisting switches here and there. He pulled the small view screen towards him to check the results,

"BINGO!" he screamed to the open air.

After a few minutes looking over the results, a puzzling fact buzzed inside the Doctors brain. There was no cause and more importantly there was no sign of who was behind it. Surprise, surprise, he thought.

"Well," he said to the open air, "all there is to it then, I suppose, is to go, _investigating_. I love investigating!" he exclaimed, with a wide grin tugging at his lips.

"_I know you do, my Doctor_" a voice inside his head replied. The Doctor only smiled. "_Please be careful. I don't want you to be hurt!"_ begged the voice.

"Have you ever seen me purposely harm myself?" asked the Doctor, looking up towards the ceiling of the TARDIS.

"_Yes" _replied the TARDIS, "_whenever you go to any planet, fight an enemy or when you try and stop people."_

"Ok, fair point but most of the time, it's not my fault, I'm always the victim. I can't help people getting the wrong end of the stick, can I?" replied the Doctor.

"_Try not to get hurt, Doctor… Just look after yourself," pleaded the TARDIS._

"OK, I will but I can't be held responsible for someone not obeying the rules. Although, in some cases rules are there to be broken… well, at least bent but not when they help keep you safe!" replied the Doctor.

He thought of the incident with Rose on the Gamestation, all those years ago. In an attempt to save him, she had looked into the heart of the TARDIS. Nobody was supposed the look into the heart of the TARDIS, not even Time Lords. But, she had eliminated the Daleks and had resurrected Captain Jack Harkness but at a cost. He remembered that, the time vortex was killing her and so he had to save her and that led to him regenerating. Even to this day, he was glad she had saved him and came back when he had sent her away. And, this just enforced the respect and love he felt for her then, and even now. God he missed her.

An impatient hum could be heard emanating from the TARDIS, bringing him out of his reminiscent thoughts and back to the real world.

"Sorry" said the Doctor, "I'll get going! But, remind me next time to get a dictionary so companions can look up the word 'rule' because they obviously don't know what it means; a leash to keep them from wandering off and disappearing, and lastly, oven gloves so they can't pick anything dangerous up! Oh, and remind me to get a locator so I can find them again!"

"_You love the chase and you know it! As you have said, you love investigating!" _replied the TARDIS, with a melody that sounded like a giggle echoing around the control room.

"Another fair point!" replied the Doctor, scratching his chin "Am I that obvious? Actually, don't answer that. Well, better be off, companions to find, a planet to save, and an enigma to solve! Keep concealed, alright!" He patted the console and headed for the door, grabbing his coat on the way out.

He locked the door of the TARDIS and made to walk back up the alleyway. At the place where Donna had gone missing, the Doctor made a last ditch attempt to trace the signal the transporter used to send Donna to wherever she was. It was faint but as the Doctor upped the frequency of the scan the signal seemed to become stronger. But, the most frustrating thing about it was the fact that it didn't give a precise location to where Donna had gone. All the Doctor had found out was that she was still on the planet and not to far away. How far he couldn't tell but that didn't matter. The only important fact was that she was still on the planet.

He replaced the sonic screwdriver back into his jacket pocket and carried on towards what he hoped was the end of the alley. It had seemed like the alley had gone on forever, and for a moment the Doctor thought he would never get out but finally the alley opened out into a very wide plaza. Each side of it was lined with buildings of all sizes surrounding its perimeter, glistening in the light produced by the three suns sitting majestically in the sky.

A large hospital like building dominated the skyline and from the bottom, it looked like it was piercing the sky. Something felt very wrong about it all although he couldn't put figure out why. As he looked around the Doctor noticed, one fundamental problem, there were no one around. Every street, building and transport vehicle looked deserted or abandoned.

"Very odd," he thought, "No people, but why?"

He took out his sonic screwdriver and scanned the area. In truth, he didn't know what he was looking for but maybe there could be something influencing this tranquil but disturbing atmosphere. After a few minutes he had found nothing, and he began to tinker with the settings. As he turned the device towards the hospital like building, it suddenly began to bleep erratically.

"Oooo, what's this? Interesting" he thought, as he honed onto the signal. There was something very familiar about it, but he wasn't sure. It was some kind of dampening field but for what? As he got closer to the building, the signal was becoming stronger and more localised. He fiddled with the dial to strengthen it even more and raised it towards the signal. It seemed to come from a room very high up the building, to what looked like the 50th floor, if it had a 50th floor. There were a few theories running around his mind but there was a strong contender. But it couldn't be could it?

"Donna?" he whispered.

Suddenly, like an explosion, everything began to make sense. He had given the bio-damper to Donna years ago and some how she had kept on wearing it. Lucky for her, he thought, and lucky for him because the signal it provided could be traced if someone was deliberately looking for it and he had found it. Donna had been taken to this place, whatever it was, and she was being kept there. He hoped she would be alright, but he knew she could look after herself. However, he had to find her and make sure.

He had an immense dislike for hospitals, because in his experience something bad always happened to him there and like he said to Rose on New Earth, they always gave him the creeps. Things like dangerous virus's being on the loose or interstellar bounty hunters such like the Jadoon, who had taken the Royal Hope to the moon, just to catch a criminal. Good sense, he thought, but that didn't mean it was the right thing to do. It wouldn't be the way he would have done it. That was when he had met Martha Jones for the first time, and he was glad he did but like everyone else in his life, she left. But, the point to all this, is the fact that he didn't like hospitals, nice on the front but downright creepy in the background and he had a feeling that this was going to be no different. He hoped he was wrong.

He was suddenly brought back from his thoughts by a sudden bleeping noise coming from the silver device in his hand. It was signalling that there was another alien object within the building. He couldn't tell what it was from the signal but he thought that would take the charm out of investigating.

So he moved towards the entrance, replacing his sonic screwdriver into his pocket. When over the threshold he plastered on his most 'mildly interested' look onto his face, while his eyes darted here, there and everywhere intent on discovering the creepy side of this situation.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

**Chapter 4**

The nurse had been gone for a few hours but Donna knew she would be coming back and whatever she came back to do would not be a good experience.

She looked about her and saw that the ward, she had been man-handled into, was much bigger than she had first thought and ever seen before with so many beds that ran the length of the room. There seemed to be what looked like a nurse's station every 600 yards. This definitely put the NHS to shame. Well, if she was brutally honest, anything put the virus infested NHS to shame. It seemed to invent more lethal virus's than it was curing.

She tried to get a closer look at a station. It looked like nothing she had ever seen before, even in the TARDIS. It was full of switches and screens which looked more at home at an army base or something. The Doctor would have loved it. Maybe, she thought, there was some kind of communication or information aspect to it that would let her contact the Doctor or failing that, at least tell her where she was.

Before she had a chance to try anything, a nurse with bright purple hair came through the door with what looked like a very painful needle. Luckily, to her relief, she had moved away towards another bed. Donna watched her to make sure she would not be coming back soon. The nurse disappeared around the corner and as Donna saw, there were no other people about so she took her chance.

The panels looked very much like a keyboard she had seen during her many temping jobs but what was different was the fact that there was no letters on the keys. They had been replaced by some kind of symbol. Somehow, to her surprise, she knew what they meant, but how? She then remembered the Doctor saying that it was the TARDIS. He said that the TARDIS generated a telepathic field that translated alien languages inside her head. Wonderful but unnerving, she thought.

She sat in front the screen and began typing, always checking to see if anyone was coming. Finally, she found some sign as to where she was,

_VITA HEALTH SERVICE _

_Brought to you b_y

_BAD WOLF INDUSTRIES_

"Well that explains the wards and nurses" she thought.

She pressed a few more buttons and a screen showing a large empty plaza came up, then suddenly a lone man with short brown hair, wearing a brown suit and a long brown coat appeared out of a passage to the side of the plaza. She suddenly remembered the TARDIS in an alley and walking with the Doctor while he talked about how Vita had been a bustling planet who liked to project aspects of other worlds onto their planet. She knew he had said more about it but she wasn't really listening as the phone thing, which had transported her away, caught her eye.

The same guilt that she had felt before came back to haunt her because this was her fault because she didn't listen.

"Doctor?" she exclaimed as she stared at the slim figure on the screen.

She realised she had been too loud in her surprise and she quickly checked about her. No one stirred which was a relief so she turned back to the screen. The figure that was the Doctor was now fiddling with a silvery device in his hand. His sonic screwdriver, she thought. He began to move it about, scanning for something, then suddenly his focus or that of the screwdriver was now pointing towards something else but what that was, Donna didn't know or couldn't see. The Doctor began to move in that direction, until he went out of view.

Donna rushed towards the window above her bed but she couldn't see that much but more importantly, she couldn't see the Doctor.

"Where are you, Doctor?" she whispered.

A voice behind her suddenly spoke, frightening her and making her freeze. She felt like a child that had been caught doing something that she shouldn't.

"What are you doing?"


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

**Chapter 5**

Donna slowly turned around and saw the same nurse with the purple hair staring at her.

"What are you doing?" she repeated.

"Nothing, I was just looking out of the window. Is that a problem?" replied Donna.

"No, but you should be in bed," said the nurse, slightly irritated.

Donna turned and moved towards the bed and sat down. She smiled at the nurse. "Happy now?"

The nurse didn't reply but by her demeanour she seemed to relax a little. She moved about Donna's bed, tidying then finally picked up what seemed like Donna's chart, fishing out a pen from her pocket.

"How are you feeling today? Still feeling headachy and dizzy?"

"What do you think?" retorted Donna, "how would you feel if you had been knocked over the head and man-handled?"

The nurse said nothing. All she did was look at Donna, with a 'just answer the question' look.

"Ok, yes I still have a headache but other than that I feel fine," replied Donna.

"I'll give you a painkiller for that" replied the nurse, writing notes onto the pad in her hands.

"Oh, how nice of you!" replied Donna, sarcastically as the nurse moved to get Donna the drug.

A few minutes later, the nurse returned holding a small vial of blue liquid. The nurse motioned to her but Donna just looked at it.

"What's that?" she asked, eyeing up the blue liquid, suspiciously.

"It's your painkiller, for your headache," replied the nurse, "I suggest you take it."

"Well, I suggest you take it away. I think I can manage the pain," replied Donna, clearly suspicious that it could be something more.

"You said you are feeling pain, so take it and it will go away" replied the nurse.

"What am I a child? Just leave it," retorted Donna, "and anyway who are you?"

"Fine but take it when you really need it! My name is Xenafa, and you?"

"Donna, Donna Noble. Xenafa is a nice name. So you come from Vita then?" replied Donna.

"Thank you and yes I am from Vita," she replied.

"Well, while I was just looking outside, I saw absolutely nobody on the streets and before I got hit over the head, I saw no-one in the rooms or in any corridor. Where is everyone? Some kind of public holiday?" asked Donna.

Xenafa looked uncomfortable and dispirited. Donna instantly knew there was something more sinister to this. Xenafa didn't say anything for a while but by the look on her face she was fighting an internal emotional battle.

"Xenafa?" began Donna, "tell me what's been going on. What happened?" motioning Xenafa toward the bed. Xenafa sat down next to Donna and began to tell her everything.

"When did it begin?" prompted Donna.

"It began a few months ago" began Xenafa, "when this building was taken over. It seemed to signify the growing prosperity of our city and planet but after a few months' people started to disappear."

"Disappear?" said Donna, puzzled.

"Yes. It wasn't that outrageous at first but an increased number of people started to go missing. Mainly from alleys and other localised areas and now most of the population has gone missing. People are now very scared to come out of their homes, so no one goes out and so the streets are deserted" replied Xenafa.

"And you believe it involves this building? Who runs this place?" asked Donna.

"I do. Bad Wolf Industries took it over approximately a year ago and they introduced alien objects that transported people to the hospital. They said that it was an emergency service to transport people who were injured and the like. But those people haven't been seen again." said Xenafa. She looked on the verge of tears.

Donna moved towards her and tried to comfort her. She couldn't believe what was happening. Possibly the same device they had introduced had also taken her to this place.

"But, it didn't stop with the injured," said Xenafa, "it began to take healthy people as well for no reason at all."

"And, what did the company say?" asked Donna.

"Nothing. I think they tried to make out that nothing was happening or going wrong," replied Xenafa.

"And, did you lose anyone?" asked Donna.

"Yes," Xenafa whispered, "my mother, sister and brother were all taken. All that is left now is my father and I." Xenafa sobbed even more, the memory of the day her mother and siblings had gone missing still raw in her mind.

"I'm so sorry," said Donna, placing an arm around the sobbing nurse.

"So, how come you're working for the people responsible?" asked Donna, after Xenafa had regained her composure again.

Xenafa looked into Donna's eyes, "To try and find them and bring them home."

"But, don't you think they are dead or gone from here?" asked Donna.

"Maybe, but I still have to hope that they are still here and that is enough for me," replied Xenafa.

"So have you found out what they actually do here?" asked Donna.

"Well, I know that it is run as a hospital but I have heard that there is some kind of genetic engineering going on but I don't know for sure," replied Xenafa.

"Genetic Engineering, what for?" asked Donna.

"I don't know," replied Xenafa.

Well, it can't be for anything good, thought Donna. She would have to find the Doctor, wherever he was and tell him. But how, she would have to figure out.

"Thanks for letting me know, Xenafa," said Donna.

"That's ok, but how come you're here? Your not from here are you?" asked Xenafa.

"No, I'm not from here, I'm just visiting but I got taken here by a small black device I found in an alley," replied Donna.

"Ah, I understand. Are you travelling alone?"

"No, I have a friend whom I travel with called the Doctor, he will help us if I can find him but don't tell anyone because I have told them I am alone," replied Donna.

"Why?" asked Xenafa.

"Because I think they will be after my friend, if I let slip. So, please don't tell anyone," Pleaded Donna.

"OK," replied Xenafa.


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6

**Chapter 6**

A man with blonde, short, curling hair with a beard dressed in a crisp black suit walked into the lab, pushing the doors widely, looking around with a big grin on his face. A ring twinkled on one of his hands. This ring had been his home before his wife had actually activated it and he had regenerated into a new body. The best bit about it though was the fact that the drumming had finally gone from his mind although apart of him missed it. But, that was only a very small part. God, he thought, his wife was a little star to him, and always did what he wanted her to do even when she didn't want to. Loyalty, that's what it was. More than what the Doctor had done. Well, he thought, the Doctor _was_ kind enough to give him a proper burial but that's the Doctors way He was always sickly kind to people, even to the detriment of his own life. But now he, the Master, was back and he would destroy the Doctor this time and pay him back for all the embarrassment he had caused him. He was going to do that with the help of the most evil beings in the universe, or what was left of them anyway. There was only one Dalek left in the universe and he would bend that one being to his will.

He continued to walk into the room like he owned it, searching for the Dalek but saw nothing. He only heard it moving about.

"Come out, come out, wherever you are?" he teased, like he was talking to a child. Still he heard nothing.

"Come out NOW!" shouted the Master.

He suddenly heard movement coming towards him. He himself was getting impatient. Suddenly, he saw what he was looking for come into view his smile became larger.

"Ah, there you are! How come you took so long?"

The Dalek ignored his question. Instead it stopped moving and moved its head to look at him.

"You cannot order me!" it exclaimed, angrily.

The Master laughed.

"Looks like I just did! And, I can do what I like!" he replied, smiling.

"I am Dalek Khan, Leader of the cult of Skyro!"

The Master smiled and walked closer towards the Dalek. As he got to only standing inches from the machine, he lent closer to it with his arms out wide, looking like he wanted to hug it. In a whisper he said to it,

"You are leader of no one being the only survivor left!"

At his words, the Dalek seem to shake slightly as in reaction to the truth of it being the only one in the entire universe. The Master saw this and decided to twist the knife of truth.

"You are weak, defenceless and alone. You even refused the mighty Doctor for help! You are the leader of nothing, no one, but I offer you only one thing, evil being to being," said the Master.

"What do you want from me?" said the Dalek.

"I want you to do my bidding, be under my control!" replied the Master.

"Why?"

"Why? You ask me _'Why'_ like you have a choice!" said the Master with malice. He moved a few steps backward from the Dalek, and crossed his arms.

"Well, as you ask so _nicely_ which I suppose is a first for you, I guess, I will tell you. I am planning to fight and destroy the Doctor and I demand your help with that! I know you hate him as much as I do."

There was silence from the Dalek as it thought over the proposition. The Doctor was its enemy because he had caused the death of his race and for that the Doctor must die. But, it remembered what the Doctor had said, he had offered him help and compassion but still the Doctor should die. The Doctor had caused the destruction of his race that left him alone.

After a few minutes the Master, grew more impatient.

"What is your answer?" he demanded.

"Why do you want to destroy one of your own kind?" The Dalek asked.

"The reason is not important. Will you help me?" replied the Master.

"I will help you" it replied.

"Wonderful! It took you a while but you got there in the end!" said the Master.

Just then a woman came into the room, walking straight to the Dalek. The Master moved away a little to the side and looked onto the scene in interest.

"My lord," started the woman, "the prisoner has been placed in the ward and is recovering and…"

"Prisoner? I didn't know we had prisoner?" said the Master.

"Yes, a woman who was found spying, looking into this room by one of the pig slaves. She suffered concussion from a blow to the head and was taken to the ward to recover" replied the woman.

"Ah, interesting!" said the Master, he turned to the Dalek, "why didn't you tell me?"

The Dalek said nothing but the woman continued grabbing the Masters attention again.

"There's more. We have found a signal from an object that only recently appeared."

"What kind of signal? A ship?" asked the Dalek.

"Possibly but we are unsure" Replied the woman.

Instantly, the Master had a sneaking feeling that the Doctor had possibly arrived here and possibly with the woman found earlier.

"Did the woman say where she came from?" asked the Master.

"No," replied the woman.

"Well, thank you…," started the Master.

"Penny" said the woman.

Well, thank you, Penny, you were a great help," smiled the Master.

"And who are you?" asked Penny.

"Call me Mr Saxon," replied the Master, "Oh, and Penny could you get a blood sample from the woman and bring it to me? Also, ask what her name is?"

"Of course, Mr Saxon," replied Penny and she walked out of the room.

"What are you planning to do?" asked the Dalek.

"I'm planning a trap for the Doctor to lure him here!" replied the Master, "Oh and Dalek, call me Master, got it?"

"I don't have to call you anything, _Time Lord_" replied the Dalek.


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7

**Chapter 7**

Of what the Doctor could tell of the hospital itself, it was very clean, tidy but very empty of patients. This was very weird and unnatural, although that didn't really mean that it was a bad thing. It could just mean that they were very good at their job and so had a high turnover of happy customers. But the Doctor knew deep down that this could also mean the complete opposite.

All there was in the lobby itself was some kind of waiting area, littered with chairs, a reception desk and signs pointing out the directions of the various wards and departments. But, the most important feature was the presence of a shop.

"Aw, it has a shop!" exclaimed the Doctor, grinning from ear to ear.

"There is nothing better than a little shop to make people feel better!" he said to himself, he looked around him, "shame there isn't many people to benefit from it. Oh well!"

He was interrupted by a sudden ding of a bell. He looked around for the source and saw the door of a lift opening and a nurse walking out and heading away from him.

"Going up!" said the Doctor, as he rushed towards it and stepped over the threshold.

"Which floor please?" said a voice of a woman.

"Floor 50, please" he replied, "thank you" he grinned, as the doors slowly whooshed shut and the lift started to lift upwards.

There was a panel to the left of the door. It seemed to be an information screen of some kind. The Doctor went over to it and started to press a few buttons. The first thing that came up was the name of the hospital itself,

_VITA NATIONAL HOSPITAL _

_Part of the VITA HEALTH SERVICE _

_Brought to you b_y

_BAD WOLF INDUSTRIES_

"Bad Wolf?" whispered the Doctor.

Those two words had always haunted him wherever he went, ever since he had met Rose, even when he had been in London, Cardiff and the remote Gamestation. It wasn't her fault. Rose had even said that she was Bad Wolf but that didn't mean that she was here? Did it? But, how could she be? She was stuck on Pete's World, a parallel world, which he had closed the door to.

He quickly dispelled the idea from his mind and focused back on the information panel.

He brought up the plan of the building. There were 70 floors, which included two whole floors that were the basement areas. "Interesting," he thought.

Suddenly, the ding of the lift invaded his thoughts as it reached its destination. It alerted the Doctor, making him replace his sonic screwdriver. With a whoosh, the doors opened revealing a long corridor, dark and empty ending in two large white doors.

Cautiously the Doctor stepped out of the lift, looking around his surroundings. Either side of the lift, another two corridors raced away. Both appeared to turn away into the darkness. He took out his sonic screwdriver, quickly checking for life signs. All he found was a scattered reading but what also turned up was the same signature of the possible bio-damper belonging to Donna. So he was on the right floor.

He moved the sliver device in his hand, trying to get a clear signal lock. As he moved it to the left, the noise of the device increased. Following the signal, the sonic screwdriver held out in front of him, he moved down the corridor. The signal indicated to within a room to his right. He looked and noticed another pair of white double doors to some kind of lab. Slowly, he moved towards the doors. But before he did anything else he looked up and down the corridor, checking for anyone that may have seen him and alert who ever were in charge. Luckily there wasn't, so he checked on his sonic screwdriver and it was still showing the same signal within the room. He quickly shut it off and silence fell around him. There was a good chance, he thought, it was correct and Donna was indeed within. As he moved towards the door, he heard voices from inside the room. Women's voices but they were muffled so he couldn't hear what they were saying, but he knew one sounded emotional.

What he saw beyond the window present in the door, was several beds with some sort of nurse's station watching over them. One of the beds was occupied by a nurse with purple hair being consoled by a woman with red hair. The red haired woman looked up and he instantly knew it was Donna. Donna Noble was alive, well and safe. Well, it was a bit early to say that she was safe. There was another alien signal inside the building. So, it was safer to say there were no problems to worry about at that precise time.

The Doctor saw the nurse, move away from Donna's bed. His eyes followed her and saw her move into a nearby room. He waited making sure that she wouldn't be coming back out anytime soon. Satisfied, he took the opportunity and pushed the double doors open and strolled in.

"Ill are we? If I had known I would have brought grapes!" he said brightly, with a wide smile.

Donna looked up and saw the Doctor standing in the doorway.

"Doctor!" she screamed, as she rushed towards him and engulfed him in a massive hug, "God, I've missed you! Where have you been? I thought you weren't coming!"

"Of course, I would be coming!" said the Doctor, indignantly,

"I wouldn't just leave you here, although I have to say I was tempted!" he winked.

Donna slapped him in the chest.

"Are you ok?" asked the Doctor, "no headaches, nausea, anything?" He had taken out his sonic screwdriver and was moving it up and down Donna, as an added precaution.

"No. I'm OK," replied Donna, "but sorry for disappearing on you like that."

"I'll let you off just because it's you," he smirked, receiving a 'whatever' look from Donna. He pocketed his screwdriver back into his jacket pocket, while he looked around the ward. He then turned back to Donna.

"Tell me what actually happened," He asked.

"Well, we were walking down the alley when something caught my eye. I walked over to it and saw it was some kind of mobile phone thing," said Donna.

"What like this?" asked the Doctor, holding the device in his hand.

"Yeah, where did you find it?" asked Donna.

"Where you dropped it, on the floor," said the Doctor, "what happened after you saw it?"

"Well, I tried to call you over but weren't listening. It said something to me like 'Join with me' when I held it. Then it moved, like it was opening up. It spoke again, and then this blinding light engulfed me and the next thing I know I was transported here."

The Doctor eyed the black device as he rolled it about in his hand.

"And it transported you into this ward?" asked the Doctor, still looking at the device.

"No, it took me into a deserted hallway."

"A deserted hallway?"

"Yeah, at first I couldn't see anything but I thought it took you too so I tried to call out for you but you didn't reply. My head was spinning…" said Donna.

"Understandable, especially with the…" interrupted the Doctor. Donna glared at him, "sorry" he whispered.

"As I was saying… I heard footsteps and what sounded like pig noises. I panicked and went into what looked like a nearby office. I saw what looked like pig-men and people with bright coloured hair walk past. When they were gone, I followed and I saw them go into some kind of lab."

She looked at him and saw a look of surprise and concern.

"What is it, Doctor?" she asked.

He didn't answer her but only said, "Then what happened?"

"I heard a metallic voice saying something then I heard a noise behind me and when I turned. Before I could do anything, I was whacked over the head. When I woke I saw this doctor in my face and what looked like a hovering pepper pot. I heard it speak and then they dragged me here."

The Doctor's face was creased into an enormous frown. His eyes were unreadable.

"Doctor, you ok?" asked Donna.

He looked up, "I'm fine but did you say a big pepper pot? Did it have an eye stalk and two arms and two lights at the top that flashed when it spoke?"

"Yeah, why? What is it?" asked Donna.

"Trouble" he replied.

"What are they?" she asked.

"Daleks or a Dalek."

"What's a Dalek?" asked Donna.

"Impossible and dangerous. I met them or one sometime ago in 1930's New York. It was the last of its kind but it transported itself away before I could do anything. And I suppose it came here? But Why?" he answered. He seemed to go into a daydream for a split second. He quickly snapped out of it. He turned to her, "We need to get out of here. But first we need to find out what it's doing here and what it's up to. Come on!" said the Doctor, as he headed out of the door, quickly followed by Donna.


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8

**Chapter 8**

The Master looked at the screen showing the signal that they had just received. He knew it looked familiar; he had a strong suspicion that it was the Doctor. He could feel him somewhere but couldn't pinpoint exactly where. It didn't matter. All that mattered was that he was here and that meant the TARDIS was here.

A plan grew in his head. Time for the truth to come out.

He grabbed a black transporter device and turned. He heard the gentle hum of the Daleks movement. He smiled.

"What are you doing?" it asked.

"I'm going on a little trip so while I'm gone look after our prisoner and keep with the program." Replied the Master.

"What about our plans?" it asked.

"Don't worry, I wont be too long, just watch the prisoner!" said the Master.

He walked out of the lab, leaving the Dalek in his wake. It motioned to one of the Vitian guards.

"Follow him and tell me where he goes!" the Dalek commanded.

"Yes, sir!" the soldier replied and he rushed out of the door, in pursuit.

The Master switched on the dampers which suppressed his bio-sign including his telepathic signal that masked him from everything, making him-self invisible. Even in close range, no one including the Doctor could tell who he really was. The last time he did that was by using the Archangel network to take over Earth, capture the Doctor and make war on the universe in retaliation for the death of Gallifrey. Of course, the Doctor had stopped him with help but not this time.

He walked through the various corridors and stood in lifts that took him to the ground floor. He walked with purpose, nodding to people, who called to him, through the entrance and out into the quiet square.

The soldier crept quietly from the lift and through the lobby towards the entrance of the hospital. He saw Mr Saxon stop in the middle of the plaza. He couldn't see why; deep down he couldn't care less, all he was worried about was in keeping Mr Saxon in view so he knew when to move if needed. In the meantime, he would try and keep out of sight best he could.

Meanwhile, Mr Saxon stood in the plaza and took out a portable scanner from his pocket, holding it out as it tried to lock onto the TARDIS's signal. After a few seconds, it bleeped as it locked on. It led through a nearby alley to the right of the square. It also brought up another signal, which surprised him. It indicated that there was a life sign in close vicinity to his position. He knew it wasn't the Doctor. So, he thought, the Dalek didn't trust him after all. Well, it wasn't a surprise to him, it just proven how treacherous Daleks could be and how treacherous this Dalek could be, even if it was on its own. He looked about checking that no one else was tailing him and spotted the guard trying to keep himself hidden. The Master acted as though he hadn't seen anything and proceeded towards the alley and disappeared.

The soldier kept looking at Mr Saxon, watching him for any sign of movement. He had brought out what looked like a scanner. The soldier reached for his communicator.

"My Lord, Mr Saxon has left the hospital and is currently in the plaza. It looks to me like he is trying to find something, but I don't know what."

"What is he doing now?" replied the metallic voice.

The soldier looked around, just in time to see the Master disappear down the alley on the right side of the plaza.

"He's just disappeared down an alleyway," replied the soldier as he hurried out of the hospital in pursuit of Mr Saxon, "I'm in pursuit!" he cried.

"Good, follow him and report back when you find him." Replied the metallic voice.

"Yes, sir!" replied the soldier as he rounded the corner, into the alleyway.

After what felt like an eternity, the Master finally rounded the last corner and the blue box of the TARDIS came into view. A smile grew across his face as he walked towards it.

He suddenly heard the hurried footsteps of the soldier who had been following him and then silence as his pursuer stopped behind the corner.

"You can come out. I know your there," said the Master, loudly. He heard silence in return.

"Oh, come on. Come out, NOW!" The Master turned as the soldier walked out from behind the corner. He had his gun aimed towards the Master as he moved.

"There now, that wasn't so difficult was it?" said the Master, "Why are you following me?"

"What is that?" asked the soldier, motioning towards the TARDIS behind the Master, with his gun.

"Nothing. Tell me why you are following me?" demanded the Master, waving away his question.

"I was ordered to," replied the soldier.

"By who? My Dalek _friend_ perhaps?" asked the Master.

"Yes."

"And I suppose, you were ordered to relay any information on where I was going?"

"Yes, sir."

"Why?" asked the Master.

"I don't know," replied the soldier.

"Don't you lie to me! Tell me why?" demanded the Master, moving slowly towards the soldier.

"I don't know, I swear!" pleaded the soldier.

"What's your name?" asked the Master.

"Treg, sir."

"Well, Treg, tell me what brought you here?"

"I told you. I was ordered to. And anyway who are you?" said Treg.

"My name is Mr Saxon but that isn't my real name," chuckled the Master, "would you like to know what my real name is?" as he slowly took out a small gun from his jacket pocket and held it behind him.

"Y-Y-Yes" stuttered Treg.

"Well," smiled the Master, "my real name is the Master and I'm not from here, as you may have noticed," he laughed, motioning to himself with his free hand.

"And I'm a Time Lord who is in control of your world, even though others may disagree with me," he continued, walking towards Treg. As he got closer he lowered his voice to a whisper.

"And, I'm sorry Treg but you are going to die." He smiled as he raised the gun towards the soldier.

"Wh-wh-what? No!" screamed Treg as the Master pulled the trigger. The beam screamed into Treg and the force of it lifted him into the air. He slammed into the far wall, slumping across the floor. Smoke rose from where the beam hit him.

"Pity." Said the Master quietly.

He turned away from the remains of the soldier and walked towards the doors of the TARDIS. A smile grew across his face as he walked towards it. As he got close to the door, he held out his hand and touched the cool wood.

"We meet again," he whispered.

To his surprise, the door unlocked although it didn't open. He looked over his shoulder again, checking he wasn't being followed by anyone else, especially the Doctor. Satisfied, he opened the door and walked inside closing the door behind him.

He looked around the enormous control room. He couldn't believe he was here again; couldn't believe he had outsmarted the Doctor, again. He laughed as he rushed to the central control like a child to a biscuit jar. He set the controls so he could go back and see what really happened to his beloved Gallifrey; to see if the Doctor was actually telling the truth. He knew that he shouldn't but he didn't care for rules and he needed to know and anyway, he thought, who was here to stop him. As soon as he started to set the co-ordinates, he felt the TARDIS try to fight him but as he let the break go, the time ship dematerialised and went into flight and he knew he had won.

After a few minutes of flight, the TARDIS lurched and shook as sparks flew from the console. He tried to hold on for dear life. It felt as if the ship was going through an enormous barrier. It squealed like it was in pain, lights flickering on and off. Finally, it stopped with a deathly shudder, which sent more sparks flying everywhere and sent the Master crashing to the floor.

He gingerly got to his feet and went back to the control panel. The TARDIS was OK; OK enough for a trip back. It had also taken him to where he wanted to go. He heard fighting outside, so he checked that the shields were up and strong. He also inserted a chip, which was some kind of cloaking device that someone had kindly lent him and he instantly heard the device work. He did a last check on the shields and the cloak and happy that everything was fine, he slowly went towards the doors to look on the scene outside.

The Doctor was running down the corridor towards the lift, closely followed by Donna. He had replaced the black transporter device into his coat pocket and took out his sonic screwdriver. He stopped in front of the lift and began to scan the surrounding area.

"What are you doing?" panted Donna.

"I'm checking for an alien signal I picked up earlier. I now know it's not Dalek." he replied.

"Ah, HA!" he cried, "found it!" as he moved the device in his hand towards the floor, "It's down below us."

"Come on!" cried the Doctor as he tapped the 'call' button on the wall and the lift doors opened. He rushed inside. He kept the device in his hand towards the floor.

"It's definitely in some kind of basement and oh look, there's a basement level with two added lower levels," he mused and pushed the button for the basement with his free hand and the lift started to move.

Suddenly, he felt a wave of pain course through him, like someone was plunging a knife into his head. The feeling moved to his stomach. He fell to his knees, crying out in pain, _screaming _out in pain.

"Doctor!" cried Donna as she pushed the stop button and rushed to the Doctor's side. The Doctor writhed in agony almost doubling in pain. He could feel and hear something screaming in his head and he instantly knew it was the TARDIS. Something was happening to the TARDIS and he had to stop it.

"Doctor, what's happening?" cried Donna.

"It's… the… TARDIS," cried the Doctor, in between breaths, "there's… something wrong with her. I… have… to …go … back!"

Suddenly, another wave of pain swept through him, which sent him to the floor, writhing in agony. But, as quick as it came, the pain subsided and cleared away leaving the Doctor panting on the floor in a crumpled heap.

"Doctor? Are you alright?" whispered Donna.

He didn't answer right away, but then in a laboured whisper he said,

"Help me up, Donna. I need to check on the TARDIS."

"Ok, steady," said Donna, grabbing hold of the Doctor and helping him to his feet. He leant towards the side of the lift, still breathing heavily. Donna hit the button for the ground floor as it indicated the exit from the hospital and felt the lift move again. She heard a soft metallic sound like something rolling and hitting the wall. She looked down and saw the Doctor's screwdriver on the floor as a result of it falling out of the Doctor's hand as he fell.

The bell for the ground floor sounded and the Doctor rushed at full pelt out of the doors and through the entrance, apparently regaining the strength he had temporarily lost in the lift.

Donna held onto the Doctor's device as she followed him out of the hospital. He ran down the alleyway, his coat billowing out behind him. He turned around corner after corner, secretly hoping that the TARDIS was still where he had left it, parked in the alleyway.

He rounded the corner and slid to a halt, expecting to see the TARDIS sitting there waiting but all there was, was an empty space.

The TARDIS had gone.


	9. Chapter 9

**Chapter 9**

Dalek Khan glided into a special lab that was situated in the lower basement of the hospital. Large chambers were dotted all over the room, surrounded by three scientists. They all looked drained and tense as most had been working non-stop ever since the Dalek had given the order to start the work, knowing that they would suffer death if they didn't.

Every chamber had ten humanoids inside. On closer inspection they looked dead but they were in fact asleep, patiently waiting to be released.

"Report!"

Instantly, a squat Vitian man with bright blue hair, rushed from the nearest chamber.

"E-Everything is going as planned, my lord," he replied, sweating nervously, unable to look at the Dalek out of fear.

"Good, so the method is working well?" it replied, looking directly at him, sending shivers down the poor scientists spine.

"Y-Yes, my lord. The replacement of the Vitian DNA for your DNA was…I mean… is a brilliant idea."

"I have no need of your opinion or flattery," retorted the Dalek

"Of course," squeaked the scientist, "sorry… didn't mean to offend," he laughed nervously, then swallowed nervously trying to stem off the involuntary shakes that were threatening to overwhelm him.

"And the conditioning?" it asked, ignoring his reply

"That is going well also. We are currently feeding images, sounds and histories into the minds of every…um…being, so they know who and what they are," replied the scientist, "as you commanded."

"What of the emotions?"

"All emotions are being wiped out…as requested…leaving only hatred, anger and others but…," replied the scientist

"But what?" it asked, coldly

"But what about compassion, sense of being…," he began,

Silence fell between them. The Dalek looked at him dispassionately, like he was disgusted at him while knowing that he would never understand because as far as it was concerned he was an inferior being, not worthy of being in its presence let alone to live.

"Daleks do not need to feel compassion. They are weaknesses of inferior beings that should be removed in order to become supreme," it replied, matter-of-factly, "we have a sense of who we are. We are Daleks. We are the SUPREME BEINGS!" it cried

"Of course," stuttered the scientist, as he bowed towards the metal being almost like he was grovelling.

"When will they be ready?" it demanded, as it looked at him, with added indifference

"The first batch will be ready in 5 hours… the second in about 15."

And how many are there in each one?"

"Approximately 10,000, my lord," replied the scientist

"Excellent," it shrilled, "let me know when the first batch is ready," it replied, turning and gliding away

"Yes, my lord," replied the scientist as he watched it gliding away and entering the open lift, its doors closing behind it.

Once the doors had closed, the scientist let out a sigh of relief, and wiped his brow with a shaking hand.

"Are you alright?" asked another scientist who was standing at a console close by.

"I will be when this is finished," he replied, still looking back at the closed lift.

When Dalek Khan returned to the control room, a floor above, he noticed that the soldier he had sent after the Master had not returned. He had briefly spoken to him, and had been told the Master had disappeared down an alleyway, the soldier being in pursuit. But, that had been a few hours ago and he still hadn't heard anything else.

So, it seems that the Time Lord wasn't his true ally after all. To be truthful, he wasn't surprised as he hadn't really trusted the Time Lord but only sought to use him to complete his plan, even if that meant luring the Time Lord into a false sense of control and security. When and if he ever came back to him then he wouldn't hesitate to exterminate him and whomever was with him.

Just then the doors swished open, revealing a young male doctor standing inside the door. He seemed to look around, searching for the Dalek. When he clapped eyes on it, he instantly began to move towards it.

"My lord," as he stopped beside it. The Dalek turned its head towards him, moving its eye up and down, studying the man that was before him.

"Who are you?"

"I'm Doctor Marshall. I'm part of the team taking the cell samples from the patients and converting them for use in the experiment," he replied

"I have never seen you before?" remarked the Dalek as it turned the rest of its body towards the young man. The young doctor, involuntarily took a step backwards from it.

"I have never needed to come here before," Dr Marshall replied

"Why now?" enquired the Dalek

"We are running out of patients. We need more cells to create more clones."

"Why?"

"Some of the cells we have are not up to standard and so do not survive the process," replied Dr Marshall, slightly irritated

"What do you suggest?" it asked

"Seize more people which we can get new samples from," he replied

"The first batch will not be ready for another 5 hours; it will have to wait until then," it commanded

"But we need them _now_, cant you command more to be transported here?"

"Do not try and command me!" it shrilled, angrily, "You _will_ do as _I_ command!"

"Of course, my lord…forgive me…five hours will be fine," said Dr Marshall, quickly bowing towards the machine and quickly backing away, always keeping an eye on it until he was out of the room.


	10. Chapter 10

**Chapter 10**

The Master threw open the doors to the TARDIS. Suddenly, a flash of bright light flew past the doors, making him jump back in surprise. The next thing he saw was a large Dalek ship, surrounded by much smaller ships, move into view. The sight was an overwhelming one as well as an horrific one. It seemed that they hadn't noticed the sudden appearance of another TARDIS, which was always a good thing and by the looks of things, they had their sights on something else; _Gallifrey_. His home. He could still feel them, hear them. After all these years, it felt good and reassuring.

His eyes followed the ships as they moved and fell onto a dark orange globe surrounded by twin suns. There it was. Gallifrey, still lying in majestic splendour even though it was being slowly ruined by wave upon wave of Dalek ships. Somehow though, even with the Dalek ships, it looked so beautiful.

As he watched, the Daleks started to fire upon the planet. That told him that the secondary barriers had gone down but how? He saw countless TARDIS's in all shapes and sizes start to turn back to the planet in order to save as many people as they could from the Daleks; all knowing that the war was lost. He knew that was a bad idea, although he was tempted to do the same. He wanted to do the same, but he didn't want to miss what happened next. This was why he'd come back.

He rushed over to the central control panel and tried to link into the video system on Gallifrey. He received no pictures, only sounds. The constant screaming of his people, children crying and the cries of the Daleks followed by huge explosions. Abruptly, the audio link was cut off. He rushed back over to the door, to see what was going on off world.

The Dalek ships were increasing their fire, as they continued to stream towards the planet. Gallifrey seemed to be unharmed, undamaged by the onslaught, although he knew that on the ground there was chaos. The Doctor was down there somewhere, trying to save the planet as he always did.

Suddenly, a bright blinding flash interrupted his thoughts, as Gallifrey seem to seem to burn and then blow itself to pieces. The Master raised his hand to his eyes, against the light, and when he lowered it, there was nothing left but dust and large rocks floating everywhere.

It was _gone_. Gallifrey was _actually_ gone. He quickly shut his eyes and opened them again, hoping his eyes were just playing tricks but he quickly realised they weren't. He tried to open his mind to see if he could feel them. There was nothing, absolutely nothing. The Time lords were gone. His people, his family… no more. Tears prickled his eyes. He had never felt so alone or lost.

Then it struck him. He and the Doctor; they were the only ones left. The Doctor was right; he couldn't have stopped the hordes from destroying Gallifrey but that didn't stop the Master from hating him nonetheless. For all he knew, the Doctor was the one that brought them to Gallifrey. He had brought death on Gallifrey.

But, there was something else missing from the sad picture. The Daleks. The thousands of Dalek ships that had swarmed the skies. They were gone too. It seemed that the explosion had destroyed them but how? He guessed it really didn't matter. It was just good to know that they hadn't survived and had been destroyed by their own obsession of defeating and wiping out the Time Lords. Apart from the Doctor, they were the other thing in the universe he truly hated and despised.

A sound of mourning suddenly filled the control room. It seemed that the TARDIS was remembering what had happened here; also reliving the severe pain of separation and loss. It brought home the fact that the TARDIS wasn't just a mindless spaceship which could travel in time at will, but in fact was a living thing which had been grown and had the same ties to the now gone planet. Its home. The happy thrum that normally could be heard constantly around the control room died away leaving a heavy silence, which only added to the already depressing atmosphere. Apart of him sympathised with the machine, even felt sorry for making it relive the awful atrocity.

He looked back at the spot where Gallifrey had been, which was now just empty space with rocks floating everywhere. Tears started to leak out of his eyes. He turned away from the door and walked back inside. The doors instantly closed as he slowly walked towards the control panel, sat down, with his back against it. The lights seem to fade while tears flowed freely down his face. He didn't notice them as the image of Gallifrey's death throws kept replaying in his mind, as the void left by the sudden loss of his people increased.

A wave of intense anger filled his body. How could he have not been there when Gallifrey was lost? What could have kept him away? Then he remembered he had run away from the war when he knew it was lost and changed into a human.

Some of the anger he felt towards the Doctor began to subside. He knew that it was pointless. Everything seemed pointless now that there were only two of them now. Although, the Doctor didn't know the Master was alive and so thought he was the last of the Time Lords.

I think, thought the Master, it is time to make amends with the Doctor and have a truce. What was the point of fighting each other? Oh my god, he thought, he was becoming exactly what he hated. He was slowly becoming more like the Doctor, all peaches and cream, all forgiving. The thought of it disgusted him and he almost began to hate himself.

So immersed in his thoughts and feelings, the Master didn't feel the sudden jerk of the TARDIS dematerialising and flying away. He didn't even notice the explosions and sparks coming from the control panel and raining over his head. Everything seemed to become separate from reality. The only thing he did notice was the sudden jolt of the TARDIS landing again. He stayed where he was, sitting next to the control unable to move; not wanting to move, as he was frozen by his emotions.

He heard the door of the TARDIS quickly open and footsteps rushing towards him. He didn't look up. He knew who it was. Another set of footsteps of someone else entering could also be heard, with the doors closing behind them. Then a familiar voice came to him.

"I should have known."


	11. Chapter 11

**Chapter 11**

The Doctor kept staring at the empty space, where the TARDIS had been.

"It's gone," he whispered as the reality of the situation hit him. Who could've take it? No one except him, and possibly, Donna knew how to fly it. Well, no one alive anyway.

"Doctor? What happened to the TARDIS? Where's it gone?" asked Donna, as she stopped beside him, shock flowing through her.

"I don't know, Donna," he replied, frantically looking about, his hand running through his hair.

His mind whizzed through the many possibilities of what may have happened. Could he have left the break off even when it was stationary and it flew away by itself? Nah, he thought, he'd have realised. No, it had to be something else. He tasted the air looking for the tang of a transporter but came up with nothing. He stuck his hand into his pocket looking for his sonic screwdriver. It wasn't there either.

"No, no no no no! It's got to be here!" he exclaimed, checking every pocket of his coat. It had to be here. It just had to be! What the hell was going on? Was he beginning to really lose it?

"Doctor?" asked Donna, panicked as she watched the Doctor, patting himself down like he was being attack by invisible mites.

"My sonic screwdriver's gone," replied the Doctor, panicked, "it must have fallen out or something."

"No it hasn't, its right here," she replied, holding out her hand containing the device.

"What?" he exclaimed, wildly spinning around to face her.

He looked over towards her, then to her outstretched hand and saw his sonic screwdriver resting inside it.

"Where did you find it?" he asked, stunned but relieved. He moved over to her and took the silver device from her hand and examined it.

"In the lift. You dropped it when you fell. I saw it and picked it up."

He smiled, "Oh, what would I do without you!," he cried, as he engulfed her into a huge hug. Donna laughed.

Holding out the silver device, in front of him, he proceeded to check for any sign of foul play, hoping it would lead to the disappearance of his beloved time-ship. But still he found nothing. An ugly thought wondered into his head. What if the pain he felt was the result of the TARDIS being destroyed?

He checked for any sign of an explosion but still found nothing. But anyway if there was an explosion there would be damage everywhere and there was nothing _unless_ it flew off and _then_ blew up? Or, it could have been destroyed while in the time vortex? But, how would have that happened? He would know instantly. No, something was definitely wrong. The TARDIS couldn't just fly off by itself. Well not 'officially' anyway, although she did have her tendencies. No, something was up but the answer definitely didn't want to reveal itself.

"Found anything yet?" asked Donna, from behind him.

"No, nothing… absolutely nothing," he replied, miserably.

He replaced the device back into his pocket, defeated. He stood silently in the middle to the alleyway for a few moments looking around again but not really seeing anything, then walked over to the nearest wall and slumped down with his back resting against it.

Donna watched as the Doctor frantically paced up and down the alleyway, scanning for any clues to what may have happened to the TARDIS. But finally, he had given up after finding nothing and slumped against the nearby wall. She hadn't seen him like this before and it saddened her even frightened her. How could anyone just take the TARDIS? The Doctor was the only one, who could fly the TARDIS, wasn't he? Well, by the looks of things, the answer would be a no. So who then?

Things didn't add up. Even from the first minute they had arrived, it'd looked odd. The alley itself didn't look like it belonged; then there was the phone-like transport device that took her to the hospital where those pig-men were. Then the pepper pot shaped creature that the Doctor called a Dalek. Oh, and not forgetting all those people suddenly going missing and never coming back. It all felt very wrong and somehow intertwined. It was definitely connected with this.

The Doctor was still leaning against the wall. He looked defeated. She hoped that she could say or do something that would bring him out of his sombre mood and somehow spur him on.

"Doctor? You alright?" she whispered as she moved and knelt beside him.

"Hmmm?…I'm fine," he mumbled not looking up but staring into space.

Donna looked on worryingly. 'I'm fine' was always his answer to everything, even when he wasn't. She was quickly realising that he always kept his fears and doubts to himself like he always wanted to keep a brave face on things. Always trying to protect his friends even when there was nothing to protect them from. Always trying to keep things fun and happy.

It reminded her of one of those holiday reps from Butlins, when it was raining or the park was rubbish and everyone was complaining about it. They always tried to keep everyone happy by saying everything was fine when it wasn't, secretly hoping the people would buy it. Ok, she thought, the Doctor was nothing like a Butlins rep. For one thing he never lied to her, well almost never and they always had a good time together. And now, it was her turn to do something for the Doctor. Her turn to try and bring him out of this dismal mood he was in. Maybe it would be a good time to tell him what happened in the ward before he rescued her. If it didn't then she could console herself with the fact that she had tried.

"Doctor…I forgot to tell you something earlier," she began, breaking the silence once more.

"What?" he asked, still not looking at her.

"Well… when I was still in that ward, I talked to one of the nurses. She told me that there had been many people disappearing ever since the hospital was taken over."

"Really?" said the Doctor as he turned his head towards her, with sudden interest, "What else did she say?"

"Well, she said that when the hospital was taken over, a new emergency service was put in place in the shape of the phone like devices taking people to the hospital. Supposedly to get instant care. But, she told me that those people were never seen again. She said that it had started with only a few people but gradually increased to hundreds, even thousands going missing, leaving the population scared enough to stay in their homes."

The Doctor seemed to process and digest the information.

"No wonder everywhere's deserted," he whispered, more to himself, then suddenly like a jack-in-the-box, he jumped up and started to pace around the alley.

"Oh! How could I have missed that?" shouted the Doctor.

"What?" asked Donna, as she rose to her full height, pleased to see the Doctor focused and back to his old self.

"The connection between the missing people and the device that took you! How could I be so thick!" he slapped his forehead with his hand. He turned to Donna, who seemed to be waiting for a clearer explanation.

"Right, when you went missing, I tried to find out more about the device. But, I couldn't figure out who built it and what for, other than it being some kind of transporter. I tried everything I could think of but found nothing. After a while, I even started to doubt myself. Me… doubt myself?" he exclaimed, gesturing towards himself, with a amazement at the very thought.

"I know strange isn't it!" he continued, at the mock-shocked look on Donna's face which quickly turned to an amused look as the Doctor continued his rant.

"_Anyway_… I then had an idea and searched on the off chance for other possible missing people. I found that there had been several thousand going missing but _still_ didn't make the connection. And, now we know that there are pig slaves and a Dalek involved equalling a hostile presence but, we still need to know why!" said the Doctor, pacing around the alleyway. He knew he could think of a possible reason or two.

"So you think that the people taken are actually in the hospital being used by that Dalek?" asked Donna.

"Yes, but why though?" replied the Doctor, in thought.

"But, what happened last time?" asked Donna, bringing the Doctor out of his thoughts.

"Last time?" asked the Doctor, looking up, puzzled.

"You said that you had met the Daleks before, in the 1930's or something. What happened then?" asked Donna.

The Doctor's mind took him back to 1930's New York, when the Daleks or the Cult of Skyro was building the Empire State building for use in an experiment to start a new generation of Daleks. Then he was with Martha, _before_ he systematically ruined her life.

"Well… I landed in 1930's New York about the time the Empire State building was being constructed. I was with Martha then," he added.

"While there we heard of the homeless, being taken on some 'jobs' but who never returned. We investigated with some help and found out that Daleks had taken control of the building and were using the homeless as part of their experiment to further their race."

A looked of anger and disgust came over his face, transforming it into a menacing thing to behold. A shiver of fear raced down Donna's spine as she looked at him.

"And do you think that is happening now?" asked Donna, as the fear threatened to seep into her voice.

"Its got a familiar ring to it, don't you think? Well… we won't know for sure until we get back in there and find out," replied the Doctor, distantly. Suddenly, he noticed something lying behind Donna by the far wall. Something very much like a humanoid body.

"But what about the TARDIS? Can't you get it back?" asked Donna, bringing him back to the conversation.

"Sure but I'll have to have a think about it. Before I do though, I wouldn't mind finding out why there is a dead body lying right behind you with smoke coming from his chest," said the Doctor, rushing past her.

"What?" exclaimed Donna, turning around and saw the man lying on the floor, with the Doctor crouching beside him.


	12. Chapter 12

**Chapter 12**

The Doctor looked over the body, putting on his glasses and taking out his sonic screwdriver. He moved the device over the body, checking for other injuries. The mans face still had a surprised look on his face which was mirrored in his open eyes. This gave Donna the chills.

"What do you think happened to him?" she asked, looking at the Doctor.

"Shot, I think… at close range by some sort of energy weapon but it's hard to tell which kind," replied the Doctor, as he looked closely at the wound on the man chest.

"It definitely was the fatal blow whatever it was," observed Donna, now looking at the large hole in its chest but quickly looked away as the sight of it made her feel sick.

"Hmmm…it looks like it passed through his heart burning everything around it," concluded the Doctor, although he noticed the similarities to a Dalek weapon. But, why Dalek? They couldn't even get _into_ the TARDIS, although they had tried many times. And anyway, as far as he knew the Vitans didn't have any access to Dalek weapons and he still had his key.

"Who could have done that?" she asked, feeling angry and disgusted towards the murderer of this man, whoever he was. She had felt like this, ever since she met the Doctor, more so, she thought.

"Someone who had something to hide or who didn't like being followed," replied the Doctor, as he looked away towards the corner of the alley wall then back at the man.

"Being followed?" puzzled Donna, looking at the mans face again, but quickly looking away when she saw his face.

"Yup, it looks to me that this man had been following who ever shot him," said the Doctor, "his foot steps lead over to here from that corner where he must have hid before confronting his murderer."

"How do you know that?" replied Donna, looking at the floor behind the Doctor

"I have a sixth sense," grinned the Doctor, tapping the side of his head.

"Right… so, could he have been ordered to follow whomever shot him? By the Dalek perhaps?" asked Donna.

"Good thinking but its hard to tell," said the Doctor, although it wouldn't be surprising to him if that were the case.

"And, do you think that whoever has done this was also the person who has taken the TARDIS?" asked Donna

"Well, it's a strong possibility which seems to be the only likely one at the moment," said the Doctor, looking up at her.

"Who do you think it is?"

"Beats me", replied the Doctor, looking back down, whilst rising to his feet and looking around the alleyway.

"Another Time Lord, perhaps? Although I know that you said you were the last of the Time Lords. Do you think there could be other survivors?" asked Donna

"No, I would have known if there were others. I would feel them and I cant feel anything," he replied, "and anyway they're all dead."

"How can you be so sure? Cant they have masked their identity or something?" said Donna.

"I'm _sure_ because I saw the last _die_ in my own arms," snapped the Doctor, harshly.

Immediately, he knew he had over stepped the line. He shouldn't have snapped at Donna who, as he looked at her had a mixture of surprise and anger at his sudden outburst on her face. It was just the shock, sadness, anger and the constant reminder of being the last of his people, that he thought he had suppressed and put behind him, rearing its ugly head. Now he knew he hadn't and had taken it out on Donna. Guilt flooded through him, he never hated himself more than at this moment.

"I'm sorry, I was only trying to help!" Donna said softly, turning away with embarrassment, as tears from the shock of the Doctor's sudden outburst prickled her eyes. He instantly moved in front of her, grasping both her hands in his, trying to looking into her face but every time he did, she moved her head further away, unable to make eye contact.

"I know, Donna," he said softly, to her, "and, I'm the one that should be sorry, not you. I shouldn't have snapped at you…its just a very sensitive subject to me, and I should have warned you before. I'm sorry. Please forgive me."

Silence grew between them. Donna could see a flicker of sadness and anger in the Doctor's face as he looked at her but instead of hating or even being angry at him, all she wished to do was hug him.

"Aw, come here," she said, pulling him into a surprise hug, which he returned, "I'm sorry, Donna," he said, softly to her back.

"Don't worry about it, no harm done," she whispered, sniffing and in response, the Doctor tightened his hug.

Sometime later, the Doctor resumed his scans of the area as Donna stood a few metres away, watching him. She felt helpless. The only way she knew how was to think of a way to get his ship back, the very last thing he had of his home and her only ticket off this planet. Maybe there was a clue in their short time together?

She searched her memories and at first she found nothing. Then, the memories of their first meeting came back to her. She remembered the Doctor saying something about Hueon particles. He had used them to bring the TARDIS back to him when they needed to make a quick getaway. Maybe that could work now.

"Doctor, what about Hueon particles?" she asked looking at the Doctor, as he moved up and down the alleyway. She didn't get an answer.

"Doctor? What about Hueon particles?"

"What about them?" he replied, not really concentrating as he looked at his sonic screwdriver as he tried to change the scan frequency.

"Can you use them to get it back?" she asked

"Get what back?"

"The TARDIS, of course. You used them before, can't you use them now?" she replied

The Doctor looked up from his silver device and looked into space, momentarily lost in his own world for a second then his face lit up, "Hueon particles!" he exclaimed. He turned to Donna,

"Aw, Donna you're a genius! An absolute genius!"

"I know," she joked, smiling, "but do you have any we can use?" she asked

"I think I do somewhere," replied the Doctor, as he rummaged through his coat and jacket pockets. After a few minutes, he froze mid search and a large grin spread across his face.

"Bingo!" he cried as he fished out a small container filled with clear liquid.

Donna smiled in relief as she saw the liquid in the Doctors hands. Then a sudden worry raced into her head.

"Is that it? Is that all we've got?"

"I'm afraid so," replied the Doctor, as he held up the bottle in his hand, looking at it.

"Will it work? Because didn't you say before, that in order to work the Hueon's needed to be in a living thing?"

"Yes I did but didn't I also say that the TARDIS _is _a living thing, a brilliant living thing in fact, with the only surviving source of Hueon radiation in the entire universe? So yes, I think it may work," he replied, not really sounding too confident, "but," he added, "lets find out for sure, eh? What have we got to lose?" he grinned.

"Oh, but I think that you should do it," he said, turning to Donna and offering her the small container, "because if what happened to me in the lift was anything to go by then I don't want the container to brake before the process is complete."

"Ok, but are you sure this is enough?" asked Donna, taking the bottle from the Doctor.

"Should think so but there _is_ only one way to find out," he said, as he sat down onto the floor. He looked at Donna and saw the confused look she gave him.

"Better sit down before I fall down," he explained

"Ah, got ya!" said Donna.

"Ready?" asked the Doctor, about a minute later.

"Ready as I'll ever be!"

"Right… good, twist the top of the bottle and then watch it, ok?"

"Ok," said Donna

"Do it," commanded the Doctor as he braced himself for the oncoming wave of pain that he knew was coming.

"Here goes," thought Donna as she prepared to twist the top of the bottle. Then the Doctor suddenly started to scream and writhe around the floor. Donna instantly looked down at the bottle. She hadn't even begun anything.

She looked back at the Doctor who was now doubled over in pain. Through his laboured breathing, he shouted to her to carry on. But, I'm not doing _anything_, she wanted to shout back.

After a few more agonising minutes of helplessness, the wind, that was still as anything before, started to pick up and the familiar sound of the TARDIS's engines became louder and louder. The familiar blue timber shape of the TARDIS started to materialise right in front of them. Finally, the flashing light on top of the TARDIS stopped flashing with the sound of the TARDIS parking itself. Silence took over. Donna just looked at it, stunned.

"Donna?"

She instantly ran towards the Doctor who was now on the floor on his side, breathing heavily.

"Doctor! Its come back!" she replied, happily. She knelt beside him, and tried to help him up. All over his face, beads of sweat rolled down, his eyes were partly closed.

"Doctor, are you ok?" she asked, anxiously

"I'm fine," whispered the Doctor, with a small smile on his face,

"Did it work?"

"In a sorts…" she replied, hugging the Doctor, which he returned. He then realised what she had said.

"In a sorts?" he questioned, pulling away to look at Donna's face. She didn't answer immediately.

"Donna? What happened?"

"I didn't activate the particles…," she began

"What?"

"Before I turned the top of the bottle, you screamed out in pain…I didn't know what to do…then the wind began picking up and I heard the TARDIS and saw it appear."

"She came back by herself?" said the Doctor, in disbelief

"Yes, Doctor," replied Donna.

Over Donna's shoulder, the Doctor looked up and at the sight of his precious ship back where it should be, he smiled. He rose up with the help of Donna and slowly moved towards it. He caressed the surface with his hand while looking around the surface checking for any signs of damage. Donna could hear him whispering to it, like you would to a best friend.

Suddenly, anger replaced the relief he felt. He reached for his key, unlocked the door and raced inside. By the central control column, he saw a figure looking forlorn and sad. Its head was looking down towards the floor, so he couldn't see who it was but he didn't need to. He already knew who it was. He knew it was the Master. He had come back but how?

The Doctor froze on the threshold of the TARDIS, in shock. Eventually, he moved forward a few steps to allow Donna inside. His eyes instantly moved to the man sat on the floor. What he saw surprised him. The Master was now blonde and was sat down near the console, his face covered, by his hands, apparently upset.

The Doctor also felt an intense sadness coming from the TARDIS itself. This was added to by the darkened lights and the absence of the gentle hum that normally resounded around the control room.

The anger came back in a flood, overwhelming the Doctor. It tore at him. A part of him wanted to check the current state of the TARDIS but a another part, an increasingly large part, wanted to show the Master how meaning being pain and sadness really felt. But, then he knew that this wasn't the time. He needed answers and violence was not the ideal way to get those answers, no matter how he felt. He also had a sinking feeling that all was not as it seemed and a bigger problem had shown itself, and he knew he had to get to the bottom of it and quickly.


	13. Chapter 13

**Chapter 13**

The Doctor moved towards the Master but stopped near a support strut. Leaning against it, his arms crossed. His face creased into a deep frown.

"I should have known," said the Doctor, in a low tone "I should have known that you had some kind of plan of escape and what happened on the Valiant wasn't the last of you."

The Master laughed and looked up at the Doctor and smiled.

"So, you do recognise me then, Doctor?" asked the Master.

"But, you should be dead! I saw you die…in my own arms. How did you beat that?" enquired the Doctor, almost expecting the Master to launch into the way he cheated death, like it was some kind of game; something to be proud of and gloat about. He had done in the past.

"Ah, I have my ways, Doctor and I see you haven't changed," smiled the Master.

"Well, aren't you going to tell me, how?" asked the Doctor, conversationally, ignoring the Master's musings.

"All in good time, Doctor but right now, I want to discuss an important proposition with you which I'm sure will benefit the both of us," replied the Master

"Really? Oh, I am so honoured!" replied the Doctor sarcastically.

Donna, who was still standing near the doorway of the TARDIS, looked over the whole situation in bewilderment; confused by what was actually taking place in front of her.

"Doctor, what's going on?" she asked, looking at him.

The Doctor suddenly realised, as he turned towards her, that he hadn't talked much about the Master but he knew or felt that that wasn't entirely his fault. He had truly thought that the Master had died and so there was nothing to really talk _about_. But, now that obviously wasn't the case anymore.

Donna asked him again. The Doctor didn't reply immediately. Eventually all he did was shrug and say "I don't know but I intend to find out," which for the moment he hoped would satisfy her for now and turned back to the Master.

"Do you really think that after all we have been through and all that you have done to me, I will be open to hearing whatever you want to say to me? Well, I'm sorry but I have to disappoint you this time. I'm just not interested," replied the Doctor, "but…"

"Yes, you are," interjected the Master, looking directly at the Doctor.

"Err…sorry…what?" asked the Doctor, surprised that he had been interrupted mid-stream

"Interested… your always interested. You always listen even to your own detriment," replied the Master, "listen to me now, Doctor" he added, almost pleadingly.

The Doctor stood in silence, looking at the Master then looking away. He had no reason not to do what the Master asked but there was a little bit of him that wanted to deny him, even this.

"Before I agree to anything," replied the Doctor taking a few steps towards the sitting figure of the Master, "I want you to tell me why you took my ship?"

The Master didn't answer right away. He seemed to think about what his answer could be. Should he be truthful or lie? Meanwhile, the Doctor was growing more impatient.

"Come on then, tell me!" he demanded.

"I wanted to go back in time," answered the Master, innocently.

"Well that's obvious!" replied the Doctor, sarcastically, "but for what? What could you possibly want to travel in time to see so badly that you had to take _my_ ship?"

"I wanted to go back to Gallifrey," shouted the Master. All the sadness that he felt before the Doctor found him returned, "to go home," he added, almost whispering.

The Doctor was stunned. He didn't expect the Master to say anything like this. It just wasn't in his nature.

"But why?" asked the Doctor,

"To find out what actually happened to them. After you told me about them being gone, I've always wanted to find out what really happened. And, because of what I saw I want to talk to you, Doctor," replied the Master.

"About what? You think I did it?" spat the Doctor, anger seeping into his voice

"I did," said the Master, "and if I'm honest with you, I did when I saw what happened but now I don't. You're right. You've always have been."

"I have?" replied the Doctor,

"Yes. You said we should work together instead of trying to destroy each other, but I was blind to see it. And, now I'm not," replied the Master. He got to his knees so he was begging at the Doctors feet.

"So, please Doctor, I beg of you, hear me out and show me compassion," begged the Master, looking the Doctor, directly in the eye.

This made the Doctor feel very uncomfortable. He couldn't stand to see the Master, begging on his knees. He shifted uncomfortably in the silence and stare of the Master. Deep down, the Doctor wanted to listen to the Master but doubts about how the Master had and may behave in the future towards him later rose in his mind, so much so that he couldn't quash them completely. He had to keep his guard up, not to protect himself from the Master but Donna.

"I have to think about it," answered the Doctor, in a small voice. The Master seemed to deflate and fall forward but didn't say anything.

"But while I do, I have to put you somewhere safe," said the Doctor, as he walked over to the Master. The Doctor bent down and grabbed him by the arm and pulled him up to his feet.

"Where are you taking me?" asked the Master, suddenly panicked at the thought of being trapped somewhere with the Doctor.

"Somewhere you can relax and where you can't do anymore harm to my ship or me. A place where I can keep an eye on you while I think over whether or not to really trust you," replied the Doctor, taking a step towards the doorway leading out of the control room.

"Wait, Doctor? What do you think you are doing?" asked Donna, as she quickly stood in front of him.

"Donna, don't. I have to do this," pleaded the Doctor. "This man is an extremely dangerous person and he has to be contained, no matter what he says."

"But can't you just listen to him here…now?" pleaded Donna.

"Yes, listen to me, Doctor," interjected the Master, "please tell him, make him listen," he pleaded to Donna. Donna ignored him and only looked at the Doctor.

"I will think about it but Donna, he's not trustworthy enough to be allowed every access to my ship while I do. He's already stolen the TARDIS once. He might find some way of taking over again and imprisoning us and you don't want that do you?" replied the Doctor, ignoring the Masters pleas.

"No but where are you going to take him?" answered Donna.

"To a detention cell," he said, "where he can be monitored. If you stay here, I will come back and I will explain everything. I promise," replied the Doctor.

Before anything more could come from Donna, he moved past her and towards the doorway of the control room, dragging the Master with him and disappeared around the corner.

The Doctor walked down the corridor leading the Master by the arm. He tried to ignore the Master, giving him no chance to try and engage with him. He knew deep down that this wouldn't work, as the Master loved the sound of his own voice. All he needed to do was ignore him.

"Found yourself another charity case, I see. Well, you do love helping people so it shouldn't come as a surprise to me," said the Master, chuckling, "and I give you credit Doctor, I would have done the same. If I found you on my ship, I would imprison you too."

The Doctor kept silent, trying to not rise to the Master taunts. He tried to speed up so they would get to the cell sooner.

"So what happened to Martha? What happened to the _famous_ Martha Jones, who helped you defeat me?" asked the Master, but his questions were met with silence,

"Oh, come now, Doctor. You can tell me…after all I thought we're friends?" asked the Master, looking over at the Doctor who was looking straight ahead.

"We were friends," whispered the Doctor

"Sorry, what was that?" asked the Master

"I said, we _were_ friends once but not anymore," said the Doctor, more louder

"Of course we are friends, Doctor. It's just we have a little more history than some others," replied the Master, chuckling

"Oh, is that what you call it, 'a little more history'?" said the Doctor, sarcastically, "I didn't know that friends turned on each other and tried to kill each other."

"As I remember Doctor, it was you who turned on me," retorted the Master.

The Doctor stiffened at this. His anger rose inside him but all he could do was bite his tongue as he knew the Master would want him to say something else back. Silence reigned once more between both as he and the Master continued around the various corners of corridor.

"So, what did happen to Martha Jones?" asked the Master, once more, breaking the silence.

"She left," whispered the Doctor

"Oh, I'm so sorry to hear that Doctor. She was a very good weapon to you. You _did_ train her well," laughed the Master. The Doctor immediately turned his head and glared at the him.

"_I didn't_ _train her_," he spat and knew instantly that he shouldn't have said anything. That's what the Master wanted. The laughter that followed from the Master confirmed it. Inside, the Doctor reprimanded himself for rising to the bate. Not again, he vowed to himself, never ever again.

Eventually, they both entered a room that had some kind of cell like structure at one end. It had what seemed to be a large arch in the middle of it with a glowing blue florescent switch on one side of it. Above that switch was some kind of hatch.

The Master looked around, and was mildly impressed by what he saw. The Doctor had impressed him again and proved that he did have the guts to imprison someone. But one thing was amiss. There were no weapons trained onto the cell like he had seen on other worlds he had visited, then taken control of. To be honest that was no surprise as the Doctor prided himself on fighting with no weapons.

The Doctor walked towards the blue switch, leaving his prisoner near the middle of the arch. He pressed it and immediately the invisible barrier flickered out of existence. The Doctor motioned the Master inside.

"Very nice, if I do say so myself," remarked the Master as he looked around the cell as he walked in. The Doctor didn't reply.

"I didn't know that you had anything like this. Does it come with room service?" said the Master, chuckling at his own joke.

"Well, I have to take precautions," replied the Doctor, coldly, "you understand. Now give me any weapons you may have," holding out his hand towards the Master.

"I'm unarmed," replied the Master, sweetly, holding his hands up.

"Don't lie to me. I know you have a blaster on you, which you used to kill that man outside. Now hand it over," demanded the Doctor.

Knowing that he had no choice but to comply, the Master withdrew the Dalek gun from his pocket and placed it in the Doctor's hand.

"Thank you, now stand back," said the Doctor as his hand moved towards the button on the wall. The Master moved backwards, his eyes never leaving the Doctor's face. The Doctor pushed the button and the energy field buzzed back into life. In a flourish of fingers, the Doctor locked out the controls.

"Don't you trust me, Doctor?" asked the Master, playfully as he watched the Doctor at the controls.

"No," replied the Doctor and without looking at the Master, he turned and began walking out of the room, placing the gun into his pocket. Then a sudden question came into his head. He stopped and turned towards the Master, who was still watching him from the other side of the invisible barrier.

"And for the record, why _did_ you kill that soldier outside? Necessity or pure enjoyment?" asked the Doctor.

"Necessity," said the Master, indifferently.

"I see, so he _was_ following you, went to close for comfort to what you were doing and you had to kill him to keep him quiet," replied the Doctor, maliciously, "no surprise there then."

The Doctor turned away again before the Master could say anything more.

"Doctor! Wait! I still need to talk to you," shouted the Master suddenly, to his retreating back.

"I'm not interested in anything you have to say, _especially_ after you hijacked my ship and killed people," spat the Doctor, loudly as he continued to walk out of the room.

"But, you said you would!" said the Master, angrily.

"No, I didn't. I said I would consider it," replied the Doctor, cooly, "big difference," he added, and he turned on his heels and walked out of the room, leaving the Master in his wake.

"WAIT! DOCTOR, PLEASE!"

As the Doctor walked out of the room he had heard the Master shout after him again, but he ignored him as he felt his anger rising within. Although, that wasn't to say he enjoyed locking up his only living link to his long lost home in that cell. He didn't agree with locking up people for no reason even though the Master had stolen his ship and killed a man. For all he knew, he was part of whatever was happening on this planet. He could even be in league with the Dalek Donna had encountered earlier. If he was then he had to find out why and until he did, the Master would stay in the cell.

But right now, he had to prepare for the questions Donna obviously had ready for him. He hated going over the same bit of history again and again but knew it needed to be done. She needed to know.

As he reached the control room door, he saw Donna looking at the small viewing screen on the central column with her back to him. He took a deep breath, preparing himself for the barrage of questions that would come. Feeling slightly calmer he strolled in.

"Anything interesting?" he asked, brightly.


	14. Chapter 14

**Chapter 14**

Nurse Xenafa came back into the ward area to find a woman in a doctor's coat waiting for her by the nurse's station.

"May I help you?" asked Xenafa, smiling.

The woman looked up but didn't smile back. By the look on her face she looked angry but about what she couldn't tell?

"Yes, I think you can. My name is Doctor Richardson. I brought in a woman in sometime earlier who was suffering with concussion. I'm supposed to get a blood sample for analysis but she seems to have gone. Do you know where she is?"

"She must be somewhere on the ward. Maybe she went to the toilet or something," replied Xenafa.

"Right… did you see her go?" asked the woman, unconvinced

"No, I was with another patient. Although, I gave her some pain killers as she complained about having a headache earlier," replied Xenafa

"And she said nothing else to you? Did anyone else see her, while she was here?" asked Dr Richardson, eyeing Xenafa to see if she was actually telling the truth and not lying to her.

"No, I don't think so," replied Xenafa, "No one else has been in the ward as far as I know."

"And, you're quite sure about that?" asked Richardson, sceptically

"Yes,"

"And you're sure that no one came to visit her while she was here?"

"Yes, I didn't see anyone and I wasn't contacted about any visit," replied Xenafa.

"Your sure about that as well?" asked Dr Richardson, but before Xenafa could reply she continued, "Right, just make sure that when she comes back from wherever she has gone to, you take some blood and send it to me immediately,"

"Of course, Doctor," replied Xenafa.

Dr Richardson turned and left the ward, leaving a frustrated and confused Xenafa in her wake. What was all that about? Why were they so interested in this woman? And anyway doctors never came here after bringing their patient in and visitors weren't allowed in before any prior knowledge and she was left no messages via her nurse's station regarding anything. Something was up and by the looks of it, it involved Donna Noble.

* * *

Dr Richardson quickly walked up the hallway from the ward towards the lift. The woman, whom she had brought in, had now gone missing. She felt the nurse she had just spoken with was not telling the whole truth and she had to tell her superior that there was a possible security problem. Something had to be done. She didn't know what but she would let it decide.

She moved towards the lift and pressed the call button. After a few minutes the doors opened and she walked in, turned around and pressed the button for the lower basement. The doors closed and the lift started its decent.

Finally, the lift stopped and the doors whooshed open to reveal a darkened corridor which led to the various empty offices which had been abandoned several years ago by the Medical Corps. She stepped out into the corridor, immediately turned left and walked down the corridor, the heels of her shoes clicking loudly as she went. As she rounded a corner, a pair of white doors appeared to her left. She walked through them and immediately saw the large Dalek was nowhere to be seen.

As she walked further into the room, she heard the familiar humming of the Dalek moving towards her.

"Dr Richardson, do you have the blood sample ready for analysis?" asked the Dalek as it stopped in front of her and swivelled to face her. That always made her feel uneasy.

"Answer" it commanded, when it got no immediate reply, "OBEY!".

"No, my lord. We have a problem regarding the prisoner," she replied

"What kind of problem?" asked the Dalek.

Even through the metallic voice she could hear the tone of frustration.

"The prisoner has escaped and we cannot find her anywhere. I even asked the nurse that was supposed to be looking after her and she claims she didn't see her go either," replied Penny, anxiously.

"Look at the security camera's to see if they show anything about how she escaped," ordered the Dalek, "and tell me immediately of anything you have found."

"Yes, my lord," replied Penny, as she turned and went to the nearest control panel.

As her fingers moved over the panel, images from all the security cameras came onto the screen. With another flick of a few fingers, the screen was filled with a picture of the ward she had only just left. She commanded the computer to play back the recording starting with the time when she had taken the woman into the ward.

As she watched, she saw herself leave, the red haired woman seemed to be shouting at her then looked around the ward in frustration. After what seemed like a few hours of sleep (but only a few seconds, as Penny fast-forwarded it), the woman rose from the chair, looked about and then headed for the nurse's station and tried to activate it. Penny couldn't see what the woman was looking for as the screen was obscured by the angle of the camera.

The woman then seemed to jump from her seat and rush over to the window, trying to see something outside. What could she be looking for? Maybe she did have some help after all or at least someone here on the planet that she knew would be trying to find her. So, she _was_ lying then?

Determined to find out who it was, Penny watched the continuation of the tape. The nurse came into view again and the red haired woman sat down on her bed while she was checked over. But the strange thing was that as the nurse continued talking to the woman, she sat on her bed and looked like she was getting upset, with the red haired woman giving her comfort. What the hell was going on? It looked to her that there is more to this than the nurse was letting on. She decided that she should be questioned but she had to find out how the woman got away.

The video proceeded on and suddenly a young skinny man in a brown pinstripe suit, with a long tan coloured overcoat and short dark brown hair appeared walking into the ward. He and the unknown woman seem to know each other as they hugged each other. She began to get worried still as the man produced a familiar object from his pocket, while talking. Instantly, she knew that it was one of the transporter devices that she had helped to create when, with the help of her master, she had taken over the hospital. If he had found the device then he might know why they were there and the Daleks plan may be in jeopardy.

The rest of the film showed the woman escaping into the corridor never to be seen again. She quickly rewound the film, and froze the frame picturing the male stranger.

She turned to the waiting Dalek, who had now moved to the other side of the room and was still watching her.

"My lord, we have a problem. An unknown man visited the prisoner before she left. We have a picture of him from the security video."

"Let me see," demanded the Dalek, as he proceeded towards her. She quickly moved out of the way. It stopped in front of the screen and looked closely at the picture. It manipulated the controls and enlarged the picture. It instantly knew who it was. The Doctor had not changed since they had last met back on Earth. It couldn't believe he was here but inside he was happy. This time he would destroy the Doctor and make him pay for what he had done to him.

Also, the Master had not come back from wherever he had gone either. Even though the Master had been an ally, he was still a time lord and so could not be fully trusted.

He turned to Dr Richardson.

"It is time to progress with our plans. Are the new Daleks ready for deployment?" asked the Dalek

"I believe so, my lord," replied Dr Richardson.

"Deploy them, immediately and bring in the rest of the population for immediate processing," it ordered,

"Yes my lord but what of Mr Saxon and the man in the picture?" she asked, looking straight at the Dalek

"Mr Saxon will be dealt with and if he," the Dalek indicated to the screen, "or the woman come back then bring them to me immediately," ordered the Dalek.

"Yes, my lord, but there is just one other thing...,"

"Speak," shouted the Dalek, menacingly, cutting off Dr Richardson

"Yes, sorry... the nurse in the ward that was looking after the prisoner, I think she knows more than she's letting on. What should I do with her?" she enquired.

"Detain her," replied the Dalek, simply, "and interrogate her by whatever means is necessary and inform me of your progress," it ordered

"Yes, my lord," she replied, and quickly left the room to complete her task.


	15. Chapter 15

**Chapter 15**

Dr Richardson moved swiftly back down the deserted corridor, towards the lift. She pressed the 'call' button and the doors instantly whooshed open. She walked in and pressed for the lower basement. That was where all the clones were and where the cells were processed and made suitable for the cloning process. She didn't know exactly what they were doing to them. She didn't care. All she cared about was that the process was near completion and that no one interfered with it.

When the lift finally stopped and the doors re-opened, she instantly saw all the large chambers that housed the growing clones. Scientists were everywhere, three to a chamber. The chambers seemed to go on forever and disappear into the distance.

She drew a deep breath to calm some nagging nerves that were creeping into her and walked out of the lift. A squat Vitian scientist with blue hair, a man called Professor Par Veyron, who was in charge of the lab, moved over to her.

"Ah, Dr Richardson," greeted the Professor, warmly,

"Professor," she replied.

"We never see you down here, what can I do for you?" he asked

"I'm here to see how everything is down here," she replied, taking look around then looked back at the professor, "so how is everything?"

"Oh, fine," replied the professor, "better than what we expected," he added

"Is that right? Are we still on schedule?"

"Absolutely," he replied

"How long will they all be ready?" she asked, looking at one of the chambers where she could see the humanoid features of the clones in the light. Its eyes were closed and had something like an oxygen mask over its mouth. Intravenous drips were in both its arms and two metal rods with needle like objects at the end of them were imbedded into its head. It seemed not to feel it, just sleep. It was weird.

"We estimate the first batch to be ready in about 2 hours," he replied, bringing her back to the conversation. She turned back to him.

"Good, good," she replied, "because that's the other reason I'm here. Our Master wants to deploy the first batch now."

"Really? Now?" he exclaimed, shocked

"Is that a problem?" asked Penny. She could see he was starting to sweat. She knew that he was becoming nervous.

"No, no," he replied, smiling and laughing nervously, "actually it is," he later added, not looking at her. He seemed to try and catch the eye of one of the other scientists but as she looked, none of them seem to have turned around. But, she could see that they were listening in, because a few of them froze.

"What is it?" she asked, looking back at the professor, who now seemed to be shaking.

"The clones aren't ready yet," he replied

"But, I thought you said they were," asked Penny, confused

"I know but we need another 2 hours and then another hour to equip them for their job," he replied

"So you're saying you need 3 hours, not 2. I don't think our master will be happy," she retorted, "I don't think _I'm_ happy," she added. The professor seemed to bristle.

"I don't care if your not happy, Dr Richardson. You're not the one that matters here. It's that thing upstairs. You're just its messenger, nothing more," he retorted angrily, "but yes, we need another 3 hours and then we will be ready to deploy. And before you ask, there is no way to speed it up without ruining everything."

"Ok," Penny replied, a little shocked by the professors sudden outburst, "Just make sure we are because, as a word of warning, if this _doesn't_ work then we all get it in the neck and I promise you we wont survive it."

"You think I don't know that," he replied, nervously

"Yes well… anyway…I'll come back when they're ready so I can see them deployed. Just make sure they are," replied Dr Richardson, turning on her heels and walking away.

"Ok" murmured the Professor, watching her leaving back, then turned away and headed towards the nearest chamber.

As Dr Richardson reached the lift, another scientist was calling her name. She turned and saw Dr Marshall rushing towards her.

"Dr Richardson! Wait!"

"Dr Marshall, what can I do for you?" she replied, when he had reached her.

"Well, I just wanted to know if our Dalek _friend_ is heeding to any of my requests and actually getting new sources of DNA for this project," he replied, breathlessly

"We need new sources? I thought we had enough. Have you asked it?" she asked

"Of course," he replied, irritably, "went up there a few hours ago,"

"Then I'm sure it will do everything you recommend," she smiled,

"Yeah, right…Ok…thanks," he replied and walked off, grumbling to himself.

* * *

Donna watched as the Doctor disappeared through the door with the man whom he had called the Master.

Who exactly was the Master, anyway? The Doctor hadn't mentioned him before. This situation only emphasised to Donna, that there was a lot more to learn about him. But, there was one thing she did know from her short time with him and that was that he was very secretive, always keeping his cards close to his chest.

She walked towards the TARDIS central control panel to look at the screen suspended there. As if on cue the image of the detention cell flashed up as the Doctor with his prisoner came into view. It was like the computer knew what she wanted to see. It seemed that they were talking or arguing with each other or what was more likely, the Master was still pleading to the Doctor who was just ignoring him, locking him up and walking away. The Master, inside the cell moved away from the barrier and sat down on the cushioned bench.

"Anything interesting?" asked the Doctor as he walked back into the control room, a few minutes later, startling her slightly.

"No, just the picture of the detention cell," replied Donna, turning towards him, "I didn't know that you had a detention cell? I thought you disapproved of that kind of thing?"

"I do," replied the Doctor, "although in these kind of situations, it can be very useful. What's he doing?"

Donna looked at the screen again, with the Master sitting on the bench.

"Sitting on the bench in the cell. I saw you talking to him when you put him in there, what did he say?" replied Donna, looking at the Doctor who was now standing beside her.

"The same thing he said before," said the Doctor, studying the image with a look of distrust.

"And are you going to listen to him?" asked Donna

"Possibly but not right now," said the Doctor, turning to the control panel and started to flick some nearby switches. Before he indeed talked to the Master again, he needed to find out, for himself, what exactly happened and where the TARDIS actually went.

"What are you doing?" asked Donna, watching him

"Trying to find out the truth," said the Doctor, "the whole truth, and nothing but the truth so help me _god_," he added, with a mock-American accent, while hitting another switch with too much enthusiasm Donna thought it would brake. Donna giggled. She couldn't help it.

"What?" asked the Doctor, looking at her, smiling, hand poised over another strange looking switch.

"You're mad! One minute your serious and then you're like an excited puppy"

"I know but I wouldn't say I'm like an excited puppy" he grinned, earning another smile from her.

Flicking more switches here and there, he tried to retrieve the co-ordinates of the latest place his beloved ship had been to without him. The screen flashed with the name Gallifrey. That surprised him but the date was the big shocker. It indicated that it had passed through the locked time barrier and witnessed the destruction of Gallifrey. That was impossible. No one could enter the timelock. Not even a TARDIS, without being destroyed in the process. He had made sure of that. But it did explain the destruction inside the TARDIS and the pain that had engulfed him. He was just thankful that his precious ship was still in one piece and that maybe the measures weren't that destructive as he thought. It also proved that the TARDIS was much stronger than he thought she was. Even after all this time. This also meant another big thing. The Master _was_ telling the truth. He _was_ trying to get to Gallifrey. But what was the true reason. Did he still blame him for the destruction of Gallifrey and wanted to prove his suspicions?

If the Doctor were being honest, then the answer would be a resounding yes. But why now? Why didn't the Master go before when he had taken the TARDIS off of him the last time. Then he remembered that he had locked the controls, so he couldn't. And, anyway the Master had other plans at the time.

"I can tell by the look on your face that you still don't trust him," said Donna, looking at the Doctors face as he looked at the screen. Brought out of his thoughts he turned to look at her.

"It's not that I don't trust him, which to be honest I don't, but I have already heard and felt the bad end of his 'proposals' and I truly don't want to go through that again," said the Doctor.

"Again? Who is he to you exactly?" asked Donna

The Doctor was silent for a moment as he studied the screen again. Should he tell her or not? He knew he had to, just to protect her. With a sigh, he straightened up and walked over to the captain's chair and sat down. Donna turned to face him, leaning back against the central control panel.

"The Master is a Time Lord, like me, but a rival. In the beginning we were friends, but the situation changed and we became enemies. That's how its been for hundreds of years no matter how I have tried to make him listen," said the Doctor, with a heavy sigh.

"But, what actually happened between you two before?" asked Donna, softly

"Well, I was with Martha then. Do you remember when the President of the United States got assassinated on TV a few years ago, and a man who became Prime minister called Mr Saxon?" said the Doctor, looking at Donna, who nodded.

"Well, Mr Saxon was…_is_ the Master. It's his cover name. He took control of the whole Earth with the help of a race he invented called the Tocklaphane. Which were humans from the distant future. He destroyed most of the planet and built rockets in order to make war with the universe. He captured Martha's family and locked them up and tried to use them against me. He tried to turn Martha against me. He even captured the TARDIS with me along with it. Luckily Martha escaped. Well, she was forced too. I could do nothing. She walked the Earth while the Master pursued her. She helped me defeat him," explained the Doctor.

"But, why did he capture her family?" asked Donna, horrified at what the Doctor and Martha had gone through, although she didn't know who Martha really was.

"To make her come back to Earth so he could capture her, me and the TARDIS. He wanted to use the TARDIS as a paradox machine which opens the gap in time and space, so he could make his war on the universe," he replied solemnly

"But, how did you defeat him?" asked Donna

"By turning everything the Master had against him. With help, the TARDIS was disabled, which closed the tear in time and space and so reversed all the damage. It became known as the year that never was. But, the downside was that only me, Martha, her family, the Master and his entourage including his wife only remembered it because we were in the centre of storm. The people on the ground didn't, luckily," he explained.

"Then what happened?" she asked, sadly, as she looked at the increasing look of sadness on the Doctors face as he explained everything.

His voiced lowered as he continued to describe what happened next.

"Afterwards, I tried to take him back to the TARDIS so I could keep an eye on him and look after him as I felt responsible for him. Still do. But of course, he didn't want to listen, even in defeat," said the Doctor, "and I couldn't save him. I didn't see the gun. I only heard it and saw him fall to the ground. His wife, who he didn't treat very well, had shot him. I pleaded with him to regenerate but he refused."

A tear escaped his eye and ran down his face as he thought of that horrible moment when he thought he would be the only one left alive and alone.

Donna moved and sat down next to him. She placed her hand on his arm in reassurance. She felt the Doctor place his own on top of hers although he didn't look at her.

"Before he died he asked me if the drumming in his head would stop."

"Drumming?" asked Donna,

"He had been driven mad by it ever since he looked into the time vortex when he was a child. We all had to do it but it affected him more than people thought. More than I had thought," explained the Doctor, really knowing that the Master had only complained about the drumming after he was captured inside the TARDIS and the Time vortex, years ago.

"And when he died," he added, "it felt like I had lost them all over again."

After that he broke down and covered face with his hands, sobbing. It was like the gates that kept all his feelings at bay had broken down and his pain flooded throughout his body. But, it wasn't just that. It was the intense pain and grief he had felt when he lost Rose and the sadness when Martha had left to look after her family. He was unable to control it and for the moment he didn't want to. The tears and the pain blocked everything else around him out. He could distantly feel the TARDIS try and comfort him but then he felt himself being taken into a strong hug. He knew it was Donna and he felt comforted by it. He involuntarily rested his head on her shoulder. He felt her stroking him and heard her whisper words of comfort to him.

Deep inside he felt embarrassed for showing his feelings and burdening them onto Donna. He had been caught off guard with it all. He didn't realise that just by retelling the story it would drudge up all the old but still raw feelings he had inside. He was gradually regaining his composure.

"But the important thing is that he's here now," said Donna, softly.

"Yes, but I still need to figure out why and how," replied the Doctor, regaining most of his composure that had temporarily abandoned him and slowly sat up as Donna released him from her hug. He wiped his face with his sleeves.

"Sorry, for putting you through that," she said, in a small voice

"No, its ok," he smiled, "You needed to be told the story but I was just caught unawares by it all…but thank you, Donna," he added, as he drew her into a big hug, "and I promise to never do that again," he said, softly

"Oh, it's alright. Anytime and anywhere," she chuckled. That got a laugh from the Doctor.

"Love how you put that…any_time…_any_where_…brilliant," he remarked, grinning

Donna grinned back.

"Glad your feeling better and anyway why don't you just ask him how?" asked Donna, "After all he has been wanting to talk to you?"

"I know but I don't really want to hear it. It could be another trick," replied the Doctor.

"Just give him a chance, Doctor. You don't have to go into the cell with him or let him out to talk, do you?"

"No," replied the Doctor.

"Well then there is no problem is there?" said Donna, bossily

He looked up at her and smiled at her persistence. She smiled back.

"Theres no telling you is there?" laughed the Doctor

"Nope," said Donna, defiantly, smiling

He got up from the captain's chair, stretched and turned back to Donna.

"But I really need a cup of tea before I head back down there. All this story telling stuff has left me rather parched. You want one?"

"Oh, yes," replied Donna, stretching in the chair, mimicking the Doctor as she did so.

"Hey! That's my line!" replied the Doctor, mock-indignation

"Didn't see your name on it," grinned Donna, "well get to it then!" she ordered, motioning him away with her hand.

"Yes, ma'am," saluted the Doctor, grinning and he bounded out of the room heading for the kitchen.


	16. Chapter 16

**Chapter 16**

The Doctor found himself walking back down towards the detention cell, where he presently held the Master behind a force field. He was going back to listen to the Master but more importantly, to get a few questions of his own answered.

He eventually reached the cell and saw the Master lying on the seat staring at the ceiling. As he approached the Master turned his head towards him and smiled.

"I'm still here, Doctor," said the Master, looking back up at the ceiling, "I haven't tried to escape, although I know that you thought that I would have,"

The Doctor ignored him, walked over and pulled a chair into the middle of the room, facing the Master. He sat down, with his arms crossed looking directly into the cell.

"Although I have to say, Doctor, that this bed is much to be desired. It's as hard as a rock. I don't know how you sleep on it," scrutinised the Master, not noticing the Doctor facing him.

"I don't," replied the Doctor, coldly

The Master turned his head and noticed the Doctor sitting, looking at him with suspicion.

"You wanted to talk?" said the Doctor, simply

"I did indeed," replied the Master, sitting up and turning towards the Doctor.

"Well?" said the Doctor, impatiently, "Talk."

The Master smiled at the harsh tone and the impatience but figured that if the Doctor was willing to listen then he should take the opportunity.

"I want to broker a truce between us," said the Master, seriously

This time it was the Doctor that smiled and laughed.

"A truce? You want a truce? Do you remember when we had a truce on Logopolis when you needed me to help you put right what you caused? I died. What happened when you tried to make out we were friends? You took over the TARDIS and tried to take my body. Do you think I will listen to what you have to say now?" he laughed

"Well, in the past you have tried on countless occasions to stop me and persuade me to go for the idea of us sticking together instead of fighting each other and now when I broach the subject you laugh at me. Doctor, you are full of contradictions which disappoints me," retorted the Master

"I must have learnt that trick from you, Master but please tell me what brought all this on? Being evil not enjoyable anymore?" replied the Doctor, sarcastically

"Just listen, Doctor," replied the Master, irritably.

"Ok, I'm listening," smiled the Doctor, stretching out his legs, crossing his arms across his chest, "but first tell my why you took my ship?"

The Master took a deep breath and started to tell the story.

"I already told you. I wanted to find out what really happened to Gallifrey after you told me that it was destroyed. I wanted to find out if you were to blame. If you destroyed our people," replied the Master, sitting up and looking at the Doctor.

"And what did you find?" asked the Doctor, maliciously. He resented the idea that he was to blame for the death of their own people.

"The Daleks. Thousands of them. Surrounding the planet. They attacked and then it blew. What really did happened, Doctor?"

"The Daleks must have destroyed the generator to the shield defending the citadel. As you know it was connected with the planets core and when they destroyed it they destroyed the planet that they had longed to control," said the Doctor, ending in a small voice, looking towards the floor.

"But, how did the Daleks hit it and then get destroyed themselves?" asked the Master

The Doctor looked up

"I don't know. They must have targeted the shield itself somehow and pounded it to overload it. It obviously worked because it exploded, taking the planet with it. I couldn't do anything to stop it. They were too close to the destruction. They didn't realise that when they destroyed it they destroyed links to the time vortex which hold lots of power."

"However it could have been the Bad Wolf…in the future," said the Doctor, with a thought filled look spreading across his face. His mind wondered back to when Rose had become the Bad Wolf in order to save him from the Emperor of the Daleks.

"_I see through time and space. I see your atoms and I divide them."_ She had said that and destroyed the Daleks but maybe not just them on the Gamestation but through all time. After all she couldn't control her powers. Jack was the proof of that. Although that doesn't explain how the Daleks had survived.

"Bad Wolf?" asked the Master, bringing the Doctor out of his thoughts.

"Long story, but maybe what I thought was their doing could have been hers," said the Doctor, to himself, "but that doesn't explain why you want the truce," continued the Doctor, now standing looking at the Master.

"As I saw our world being destroyed, loss hit me like it had never done before. I felt lost, homeless with nothing but the thought that you were right about everything and that got me thinking. Since we _are_ the only ones left we should join together instead of fighting each other," explained the Master

The Doctor was left speechless for the second time that day. He couldn't believe his ears. The Master was actually serious or seemed serious about a partnership between them.

"Why? I thought you hated me and so wanted to destroy me," he questioned

"I did but now that's all in the past. The sight of Gallifrey made me think," answered the Master, "after all this time I had tried to kill you, abandon you on various worlds, kill and capture your precious companions and still you offered me friendship, help and empathy. I should have listened to you and now I will."

The Doctor was silent trying to soak in all what the Master was saying. Was he really wanting a truce or was he just trying to get onto his good side in order to capture him, Donna and the control of his ship, for use in whatever scheme he had going on the planet. Was he in league with the Dalek?

"If I were to believe you and join you in a truce, what are you going to do with me and Donna? Why are you here on Vita? Have you got something to do with the Dalek?" asked the Doctor

"I see you still don't trust me, which I totally understand after everything I have done to you but if we do join forces I wont do anything to you or your companion," replied the Master

"Ok, but what about the reason why you're here on Vita?" pushed the Doctor

"Before I saw the truth, I still blamed you for everything that had happened to Gallifrey and for what happened between you and me and I wanted to kill you and humiliate you. That was why I was here on Vita. The Dalek wanted me to help it produce a new race for itself. To be honest I couldn't careless but I needed it to set up a trap for you so I could trap you and kill you," explained the Master, remorse seeping into his voice

"And now?" asked the Doctor

"And now, I don't. I saw the signal for a ship that had just landed. I suddenly thought that you may have come to this planet. I thought about trying to find out what actually happened to Gallifrey, to see if you had actually been telling the truth. So I searched out the signal and found the TARDIS but you were nowhere in sight. I had been followed and I didn't want the Dalek to find out what I was actually up to, so I killed the soldier. I went inside the TARDIS…" described Master

"How did you get in the TARDIS? It was locked," exclaimed the Doctor

"I don't know but I promise I didn't use anything to break in. Anyway, I went in and programmed the TARDIS and it dematerialised. It exploded as it went through some kind of barrier but it made it. I didn't notice it returning to you, though. How did you do it?" replied the Master

"Hueon energy and that barrier was a time lock. Nothing should have been able to get through," answered the Doctor

"Really, I thought they were extinct? Anyway, do you want to join me, Doctor?" asked the Master

"I have to think about it," replied the Doctor

"Well, I'm not going anywhere," said the Master, leaning back against the wall of the cell, "but Doctor, think quickly because I think that the Dalek is planning something serious and if you want me to help you stop it then I will need time and I don't know how much time we have."

"I will," replied the Doctor, rising from his chair and turning towards the door. He abruptly stopped and turned back towards his sitting prisoner, "and for the record, its good to see you again."

The Master looked at him, "you too."


	17. Chapter 17

**Chapter 17**

During the walk back from the cell holding the Master, the Doctor had already decided he needed to find out first hand what was going on at the hospital but he knew it would be tricky. He just hoped that they hadn't upped their security just yet because no doubt they had found him on the security camera, with Donna.

The Master had just told him that the Dalek was planning and carrying out genetic engineering inside the hospital. He needed to find out where it was happening and what they were actually doing.

He entered the console room and moved towards the central screen and began a scan of the building. He couldn't tell much from the results but what he did find was that there was a low level security field surrounding the basement which conveniently stopped him from seeing what was inside but it wasn't hard to guess what. It was common knowledge that everyone involved in secret goings on use the basement for their secret operations. And this would be no different.

"So what happened?" asked Donna, from behind him, "Did you listen to him?"

"I went down there didn't I?" replied the Doctor, looking at her

She instantly gave him a 'you know what I mean' look.

"Yes, I listened," the Doctor sighed

"And?"

"And I listened," said the Doctor, evasively, looking back at the screen

There was an exasperated sigh from Donna. It was much easier to get blood from stone than get info from the Doctor, at the moment.

"But what did he say, Doctor?" she asked

"What's with all the questions?" he asked, tetchily

"What's with all the attitude?" demanded Donna, crossing her arms,

"I haven't got an attitude!" retorted the Doctor,

"What's that then?" she replied, laughing

"Alright, alright!" said the Doctor irritably, "He wanted to have a truce between me and him," he replied, turning around to look at her.

"And you didn't agree?" mused Donna,

"Of course I agreed, its just I haven't told him yet," replied the Doctor, looking at her, "but its just I think theres more to it then what he's saying."

"Like what?"

"I don't know," replied the Doctor,

"You still think he could be in league with the Dalek, even after what he says," remarked Donna. The Doctor looked surprised at her answer. How did she know that?

"I can see it plastered over your face," she replied, as if reading his thoughts.

"Oh," said the Doctor then he looked a little sheepish.

"So what you looking for now?" she asked, walking over and standing beside him. The Doctor turned back to the scanner.

"To see if I can pick up any clues by scanning the hospital building," he replied, as he twisted a few more dials and pushed a few buttons.

"Right," she replied watching the screen, "So what have you found?" she asked, as she sat down on the captains chair.

"A low level security field around the basement of the hospital. They are definitely hiding something down there," he replied.

"What do you think is down there?" asked Donna

"Well, we have a Dalek, a hospital, people going missing and a security field around the basement… equalling nothing good," explained the Doctor, looking at Donna.

"Oh and the Master told me that they are doing genetic engineering and I'm positive that its down there," he added, pointing at the bottom of the screen.

"So when are we going?" asked Donna, eagerly

"_We_ aren't going anywhere; _I__'__m_ going to have a look and see what's going on," replied the Doctor,

"What?" exclaimed Donna, in surprise.

"Its too dangerous for you at the moment," pleaded the Doctor,

"But what about you?" retorted Donna, "You're not exactly bullet proof are you?"

"I'll be fine but they would be looking for you. If they found you, then they would capture you and I don't want you harmed. That's why its best if you stayed here in the TARDIS because, for one, they don't know where we are and, two, someone needs to be here to look after our special guest," replied the Doctor, walking towards the TARDIS doors, and grabbing his coat.

"But…" began Donna, rushed towards him, after placing her cup on the captains chair.

"Please Donna, trust me. I will come back," said the Doctor, urgently, thrusting out his arms to stop her.

"But what if you don't?" questioned Donna, anxiously, "what do I do then?"

"I _will_, don't worry," replied the Doctor, as he opened the door, "see you in a bit," he smiled, as he slipped out leaving an anxious Donna behind.

The Doctor walked away from the TARDIS, feeling guilty for leaving Donna behind inside the TARDIS, but that was the best place for her to be at the moment.

The body of the soldier, the Master had killed earlier was still lying near the far wall as he approached the end of the alley. Its skin had a grey tinge to it now, and a large pool of congealed blood, reached across the floor.

As the Doctor, looked at the body, he felt responsible for what had happened to him even though he hadn't pulled the trigger. It didn't matter. Another person had died as a result of his and the Masters continuing feud and many more had as result of what was going on inside the hospital. He had to try and stop it.

He looked back behind him to the TARDIS. He smiled slightly at the sight, "see you soon and look after her," he whispered to it and then turned away and quickly walked up the alley towards the square and the hospital.

After a few minutes, he finally reached the square. The Doctor stopped and looked around the corner, looking for any hostile obstacles he had to overcome. He took out his sonic screwdriver and scanned the area, just to make sure his eyes were telling him the truth. Happy that there were no immediate problems, he placed it back inside his jacket pocket and walked into the square and towards the hospital. He still looked about him, every sense on edge, acutely aware that anyone could be around and spot him and alert the Dalek. And, that he couldn't afford at the moment.

As he entered the hospital, it was as it was before; empty and clean with no shop. That didn't matter now. He had a job to do. He immediately walked towards the lift and pressed the 'call' button. It seemed to take forever but it finally arrived with a whoosh of the doors.

The Doctor walked in and pressed the button for the lower basement. The lift immediately started its decent. He stood to the side of the door so when the door did open he wouldn't be in plain sight of whoever was working there.

After a few moments, the doors opened. The Doctor slowly looked around the corner of the lift door and saw a large open space like a hanger for large military aircraft before him. It was impressive. But instead of being filled with planes, it was filled with hundreds of man-sized chambers each with a clone inside. The Doctor could see them inside and all of them looked like they were sleeping. He could also see three scientists around each one of them. No one was looking at the lift. Luckily, for him. He took out his sonic screwdriver and pointed it at the lift controls nearest to him and gave it a short buzz. Instantly, he heard a small metallic click of the lift override, stopping the lift from moving. He looked quickly around the corner to see if the noise and the open lift had alerted any but still no one was watching.

So this was it. If he wanted to find out what was really going on and stop it, he had to look around. Meaning, he would have to mingle and that would bring up some awkward questions. Luckily, he had his trusty psychic paper and that always helped. Hopefully, they didn't have basic psychic training or then it would become tricky; very tricky.

So, with psychic paper in hand he took a step into the middle of the lift. With a deep breath, he headed out of the lift and into open room.


End file.
